13 Feb 2013

The mandate of the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) is to create a conducive environment for the development of sustainable industries and trade.

Addressing a press briefing on Tuesday, the Minister of MTI, Ms Dorcas Makgato-Malesu,  stated that a conducive environment would grow the economy through economic diversification.

Through its mandate, she stated that the ministry would be contributing to the vision pillar of a prosperous, productive and innovative nation.

She noted that in line with the ministry mandate, the ministry had to achieve high level deliverables citing creation of sustainable industries, economic diversification, export development, foreign direct investment, expansions and domestic direct investment, among others.

The minister further highlighted that government had taken a decision to accelerate outward investment as a tool for diversification, which would be led by Botswana Development Corporation (BDC).

Through this initiative, local competitive enterprises would be facilitated to participate in foreign or external markets.

She noted that enterprise competitiveness was a central component of the Economic Diversification Drive (EDD), stating that while government supported local enterprises through purchases in the medium to long term, it was critical that these enterprises develop their production capacities so that they could supply quality products to the domestic, regional and international markets. ENDS