Govt to ease entrance of skilled expatriates

Boitshepo Majube | Thursday February 20, 2014 16:28

Speaking at the launch of the Business Facilitation Service Centre in Gaborone this week, Makgatho-Malesu said government was developing this in partnership with the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs with a view to allow importation of requisite skilled expatriates to work in Botswana.

“Tier 1 investors are those that pass the investor appraisal and selection criteria of approved investor sponsoring institutions such as BITC, Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO) and government hubs,” she explained.

Makgatho-Malesu emphasized that the objective of Tier 1 was to utilise the investor appraisal processes with various sponsoring institutions to facilitate and enable fast-tracked approvals for work and resident permits, land and other licensing requirements.   

“We envisage that such an approach will effectively assist the current assessment institutions by reducing their volumes, thereby facilitating improved service standards and turnaround times for investor facilitation in Botswana,” she said.

In an effort to dispel the widely held view that government was anti-investment, the minister pointed out that government was fully committed to providing a conducive business environment through which the private sector is accorded the necessary support to enable it to flourish.

Makgatho-Malesu added that it was her belief that Botswana could not achieve required levels of sustained economic growth and employment and bring about prosperity for Batswana by continuing with business as usual.  “It is therefore logical that we need to redouble our efforts towards diversifying and transforming the content and structure of our economy,” she noted.  Makgatho-Malesu said there was need to increase support to productive sectors of the economy in order to boost Botswana’s industrial base, capacity, output and competitiveness.