The Minister of Finance and Development Planning Baledzi Gaolathe said that public health problems continue to hamper workers’ effective participation in the development of the country. He said labour productivity is crucial in economic development.
“Increase in labour productivity is one of the critical factors for improving long term economic growth for sustainable and diversified development,” Gaolathe said.
He added that the economy of Botswana is expected to grow at a rate of five percent during the next financial year to keep pace with the world economy, which is recovering from a slowdown. Gaolathe said these while presenting his fourth budget in parliament under the theme “Improving Economic Performance: A Vehicle for Sustainable and Diversified Development”.
Botswana has the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence figures in the world. Over a third of its 1.7 million people – a majority of whom are the working class - are affected by the epidemic. About 68 percent of the population is less than 29 years of age.
It is feared the pandemic will reverse the economic gains of the country by wasting away the active members of the society. To stem the tide against HIV/AIDS, Gaolathe said measures like the launch of the Antiretroviral (ARV) Therapy in 2002 have been put in place. “Government has attached high priority to manpower development through training of health care personnel and health care infrastructure,” he said.
He added that the improvement of the health care infrastructure has been done by the upgrading of district hospitals like Scottish Livingston, Sekgoma Memorial and Mahalapye.
Gaolathe also said that to make sure that Batswana participate effectively in the development of the country, government has initiated a raft of policy changes.
The changes and strategies include the amendment of the Public Health Act of 1971 and the Smoking Act of 1992 to provide public health safety.
In addition, the bigger cake of the development budget would go towards anti-AIDS projects.
“The Ministry of State President gets the largest share of P977 million and funding mainly would go to HIV/AIDS programmes which will get P415 million,” Gaolathe said.
Apart from State President, the Ministry of Health would get a large share for the improvement of the health infrastructure.
Last week, the country got a boost in its fight against AIDS when the US government announced its Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief for Africa of about $2.8 billion (about P13.3 billion) for fiscal year 2005.
Botswana is expected to benefit from the funding of P41 million in the first phase of the project that would last for five years.
