BOTSWANA’S FIRST STEP TO ECONOMIC DIVERSITY
President Dr Masisi indicated yesterday during his delivery of the State of the National Address (SONA) that Botswana is on its way to an economic diversity with its successful mitigation and outstanding performance in the diamond mining sector.
Industrialising and diversifying the economy would be accomplished by engaging major continental financial institutions to open up funding options beyond domestic development funds.
“These resources will support development of bankable projects in agriculture, mining, manufacturing, tourism, including development of Special Economic Zones and strategic rail and road maintenance,” said Dr Masisi.
President Masisi further outlined initiatives and projects which are to undertake to stimulate the grow of the economy and create more employment opportunities for Batswana and citizen companies also had the opportunity to be part of the entire petroleum value chain, including transportation and logistics, through the partnership between Debswana Diamond Company and Botswana Oil.
Looking into the 2023 calendar, President Masisi mentioned that Botswana shall launch its own satellite in year 2023. The Botswana Satellite (BOT-SAT-1) in Palapye has been developing a satellite in partnership with Cape Town University of Science and Technology.
“The Botswana Satellite will bring Botswana into the global satellite eco-system for research and development in a variety of disciplines, this is a huge milestone towards a knowledge- based economy. Reset Agenda in action,” said the President.
Other initiatives which were said by the President during the SONA include the positioning of the Ramatlabama National Artificial Insemination Laboratory in the centre of excellence for cattle and small stock assisted reproductive technologies, semen harvesting technology for semen processing, analysis, packaging and storage.
As part of the Reset Agenda, the Botswana Vaccine Institute (BVI) is expanding its plant capacity to enable product diversification through Research and Development, the facility will double the BVI capacity to blend vaccines from the current 20 million doses to over 50 million.
President Masisi described during the SONA 2022 that the economy of Botswana will resurrect when the proposed initiatives and the ones in motion fall through.
