Regional collaboration key to dev – PS

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry, Peggy Serame, has said that the Botswana Government remains committed to working closely with the country’s neighbours in the SADC region, to see the furthering of socio-economic development.

Serame shared these sentiments with regional Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) at the 2019 SADC DFI Games Closing Dinner recently. The 2019 SADC DFI Games initiative was proudly hosted by BDC.

“Our commitment to furthering Botswana’s development is not merely for our national benefit alone. Our developmental goals have been conceptualised for Botswana to play an even more invested role in driving greater pan-Africanism across the region and the continent. We intend to achieve this through expanding into greater sustainable investments and the greater exporting of the unique Botswana experience in every trade we participate in,” said Serame.

She continued: “At the Ministry, our mandate is to create a conducive environment for the promotion of investment and development of sustainable industries and trade, with a view to diversifying and growing the economy, creating wealth, as well as employment. This mandate is executed via our DFIs and collaboration is key to staying relevant to the Botswana developmental agenda and that of evolving markets. This is to ensure the responsible allocation of the country’s resources towards sustainable investment and trade initiatives.”

The sentiments shared come off the back of the Ministry’s recently launched New Purposive Apex Strategy to accelerate the SME, Investment and Export sectors in Botswana, which BDC is also mandated to support through its strategic stakeholder management. Through this Model, the Botswana Government is deepening collaborative trade efforts to steer the national ambition to grow Botswana from an Upper Middle-Income Country, to a High-Income country by 2036.

 “We are grateful for the Permanent Secretary’s support of our hosting. Collaboration is a key value of our business strategy as a state investment agency as we understand that when working with our network of colleagues, partners and wider stakeholders, we are participating in making a more developed and more inclusive world,” said BDC Acting Managing Director, Moatlhodi Lekaukau.

He continued: “In every business activity BDC undertakes, we are cognizant of the fact that these are opportunities to share about Botswana’s promising industries, whilst in return gaining insight from the views shared from our neighbouring markets. I commend my team on a job well done for ensuring the success of this hosting. We look forward to deepening our relationships with DFIs participating in this initiative and their networks in future.”

BDC hosted DFIs from Botswana and regionally namely, Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA), National Development Bank (NDB), Ithala Development Finance Corporation (South Africa), Ithala SOC Limited (South Africa), Fincorp Swaziland; and Lesotho National Development Corporation (LNDC).