Forum to transform FCC into economic hub
Patricia Edwin | Friday May 9, 2014 12:24
Mayor James Kgalajwe revealed that the private sector has come and the central government have come on board to support the forum.
“I am not able to list names of companies but we have a long list of companies that have partnered with the city on this initiative,” he told a press conference on Tuesday.
Kgalajwe said they have set aside August 19, 20 and 21 as the finalised dates for the launch. The mayor said that the event was postponed initially because the consultations were not nearly enough.
“In consultations with different stakeholders, we realised that we had not done enough consultation to sensitise the community on the impending development and investment forum both in Francistown and nationally,” he said.
The development and business forum is part of the city’s Vision 2022.
He said that the vision would also be incorporated in the Urban Development Plan (UDP4) and National Development Plan (NDP 11).
“This will be an enabler for the region to attract more investors both locally, regionally and internationally,” he said. Kgalajwe said that together with the steering committee they did consultations in Gaborone with different ministries and private sector.
“We managed to consult with the Office of The President where we met Vice President, Ponatshego Kedikilwe who welcomed the noble idea of coming up with the vision that will transform the northern region,” he said.
According to the mayor, it was upon these consultations that government ministries acknowledged and showed commitment to help in all activities of the Vision 2022 and the upcoming development and investment forum.
“This is why the Ministry of Trade and Industry saw it fit to come on board and facilitate these events of the vision through the Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC),” he stated. He said that BITC came on board and started to train the committee. After that the committee intensified their profiling of the sectors in Francistown and that by mid-May the profiling will be over.
“Profiling is necessary as it is the basis of marketing our region to potential investors and it will give us an idea on sectors that exist in the greater Francistown area and those that have potential to be resuscitated,” he said.
The mayor further said that upon profiling of the mining sector, they realised that the greater Francistown area has more than 12 mines within a radius of 200 kilometres and that it put them at an advantage in that they can influence companies to invest in Francistown in order to service the mines.
He further said that there are different sectors in greater Francistown, which could be explored like agriculture, SMME, tourism, manufacturing, transport hub and recreation and leisure.
“As we are preparing for the forum we are looking at different issues to be addressed such as servicing of land, mining beneficiation, agriculture output and information technology. We need to understand what will take place after bringing investors to Francistown which is why BITC is on board to facilitate the whole process,” he added.
Kgalajwe said there would also be city ambassadors who will market Francistown locally and internationally.
In addition, said the mayor, a city’s Vision council and secretariat would be established.