President Duma Boko launching the Botswana Economic Transformation Programme (BETP) early this week.
This is his address:
The general populace of the Republic of Botswana. Let me acknowledge each and everyone of you this morning
James Joyce counsels us. Before you plunge into the scrutiny, it is always best to wipe your glasses on what you know.
So what do we know? We know that our economy is poised precariously. It is stagnant.
Unemployment is both a blight and a vulgarizing constraint, and in relation to the youth, it is a ticking time bomb.
Poverty still stalks the landless peasant and the underemployed urban dweller with gross ferocity.
The lashings of poverty have left gaping wounds in the psyche of the nation.
We know that because of our mono- sectoral economic base, we remain perilously exposed to diamond price volatility.
We have at worst, failed, and at best, been slow, much too slow, to diversify the national economy from its traditional reliance on diamonds.
We have operated within a restricted horizon of ideas and ambitions. We know that most, if not all, our institutions have underperformed and malfunctioned.
We know, I describe our current plight and predicament as a country in order to call our collective attention to the fact that our economy is at an inflection point, it calls for action.
It cries out for transformation, and so against this short list of ambiguities and flaws, I’m here to announce, declare and intransigently defend an agenda built around four action points.
First to pivot from a resource based economy to a diversified services led economy that creates high value employment, attracts long term investment and builds globally competitive institutions.
Second to establish Botswana as a regional anchor for cross border, financial activity
Third, to leverage the country’s legal certainty, political stability and reputational standing, and
Fourth, to deliver sustainable economic value in alignment with that charter of aspirations that is the Manifesto of the current government
This agenda delivers a shift that enhances macroeconomic stability, increases resilience to exogenous shocks and forced us a broader and more equitable growth model.
It enables us to find new revenue streams, professional sectors and business ecosystems.
I’m here to announce and launch the development of the Botswana economic transformation program, our grand mission to dismantle bureaucratic inertia and build a fast and fearless, fearless delivery culture we will in.
Transformation is a journey, not a crawl but a sprint. We will attract local and international investors with precision purpose and a world class, fully actionable execution framework
Dubai, which stands out as a good model of economic development, built itself from a desert to a global capital, not with oil, but with vision speed and a government that knew when to lead and when to get out of the way.
Singapore also rose from swamp to sovereign financial powerhouse because it embraced the private sector as a primary agent of national wealth. We have an urgent call to emulate these examples and to do it faster.
Thus our economic transformation program will be both a catalyst and a vehicle to power the country’s transformation into a more diversified, resilient and globally connected economy.
This transformation is not only about unleashing private capital. It is equally about working latent impulsions and potentialities within our public sector, in our communities.
We are building a new Botswana, where the public service is not a gatekeeper of the past, but a laboratory for forward thinking policy, digital delivery and citizen centric operational readiness.
The National Planning Commission, as our campus for long term strategy will remain at the heart of this and ensure that every government initiative is anchored in coherence national vision and public value.
We will attract not just private entrepreneurship, but also social innovators, those bold thinkers and change makers who do not build empires for profit alone, but solve deep societal challenges with dignity and compassion.
We are undertaking a bold and radical shift in how we plan, not just what we plan. Gone are the days of abstract plans, tantalizing but hazy promises, buried in mountains of reports.
We are replacing traditional process, heavy planning with a bold implementation-based model, one that begins with action, assigns responsibility and ends with results.
Ministries will no longer operate on vague mandates and exaggerated expectations, but will work with specific time bound and measurable targets.
Each institution will be accountable for tangible products and outcomes fully aligned with the precepts of vision 2036 as well as the more proximate pathways set out in the manifesto of the Umbrella for Democratic Change.
Key performance indicators will no longer be optional. They will be the scorecard by which performance is judged.
And this transformation will not happen behind closed doors.
It will not be shrouded in secrecy.
We are committed to radical transparency, publishing progress, acknowledging setbacks, and keeping Botswana informed at every step.
Because transformation is not a document -it is a discipline, and our discipline now is delivering this transformation, compelling us to strive always to know the best that is known and fought in the world.
We need deep domain experts to come think with us.
I am pleased to announce, therefore, that Botswana has formally engaged Pemandu Associates, one of the. World’s most elite transformation firms.
Their work has been endorsed by Harvard, Princeton, Bloomberg and the World Bank.
This is not consultancy, but war room execution that has helped turn Malaysia into a high income nation, help Dubai deliver world class government reforms, and worked with Tanzania and Rwanda to unlock billions in investments.
They are already on the ground, and they will work hand in hand with our government, private sector and citizens to implement Botswana’s boldest economic transformation ever attempted.
We are not starting from scratch – Botswana has already received tremendous interest from investors, but interest must now become investment.
Through the big, fast result methodology, we will use economic laboratories to problem solve ideas from the government, local and foreign investors.
These ideas will be rigorously tested, refined and fast tracked into action. The labs will unlock bottlenecks, eliminate bureaucracy, and provide single window clarity for any government initiative or potential private investment.
If you are an investor, we encourage you to submit your transformative ideas, bring your capital, bring your courage,
and we will match it with speed and certainty from the cabinet and the public service.
I’m not asking for change. I’m demanding it. We will introduce a presidential delivery dashboard every week.
The Vice President and I will review implementation progress with the ministers and report to the nation every quarter, to the private sector.
This is your moment. We are not here to regulate you into submission, but to partner with you to success.
We want your transformative ideas, your capital and your innovation for the youth.
You are not leaders of tomorrow, but you are the builders of today. We are clearing the path so that your dreams can no longer land on red tape, but land on runways.
This transformation is not for the few. It is for every village, every town, every Motswana.
The Vice President and Minister of Finance, will give more detail on the Botswana economic transformation program and the next steps.
This moment requires courageous leaders of vision, intelligence and integrity.
I close by affirming our ardent hope, our forward stride and our gazes firmly fixed on the future, a future that is spectacularly different from what we are currently burdened with.
I proceed, therefore, to launch the Botswana Economic Transformation Program.
May God bless you all.