National Business Conference returns to F/town
Chakalisa Dube | Tuesday September 6, 2022 06:00
The last edition of the biennial NBC was held in 2018, while the 2020 edition had to be postponed because of COVID-19-related challenges.
The biennial conference has never been held outside Francistown since its inception.
However, despite its high profile status, the event has failed to spark the economic revival of Francistown, which has been waning for years. Businesses continue to struggle in Francistown and some have resumed shedding jobs.
The conference brings together top government officials and private business owners to develop fresh concepts that might breed and produce globally competitive enterprises.
This year’s event will be themed, 'Roadmap to High Income: Accelerating Transformation'.
It is anticipated that the 2022 edition of the conference will explore practical as well as innovative approaches to accelerate Botswana’s transformation towards high-income status.
Four hundred leaders from business, government, and civil societies will gather in Francistown where they will attempt to come up with ways to help accelerate Botswana’s journey towards being a high-income country.
“The country’s transformational agenda and ambition towards becoming a high-income country by 2036 is under threat,” reads a statement from BB. “Launched in 2016, the first five years of Vision 2036 Agenda have seen a rocky start, marred with poor implementation, lack of coordination, and little accountability from both the private and public sectors. “There is, therefore, an urgent need to understand bottlenecks and challenges and to efficiently resolve these.”
The theme also recognises the deep and persistent challenges facing Botswana’s economy which need urgent solutions.
“These challenges—a narrow export base, external trade imbalance, fiscal reliance on diamonds and SACU revenues, persistent unemployment, an undeveloped entrepreneurial and start-up culture, and weak project and programme implement—all require an urgent and coordinated response from the private, public, and civil society.”
Business Botswana has emphasised that Botswana’s economic growth prospects lie in the private sector and not government, which is why various stakeholders are also expected to focus on discussing key reforms to ensure that the private sector plays a leading role in the transformation agenda. FNB will sponsor the conference with a sum of P500,000. Debswana has also contributed P500,000 towards supporting the conference.