Gaborone Mayor Plans To Set Up Investment Fund
Pauline Dikuelo | Monday December 5, 2016 15:14
Speaking during a consultative meeting recently, Thutlwe called out on the business community, together with investors to start coming up with solutions to diversify Gaborone and make it an investment city.
“As you are aware we are an old city and today we face the challenges of how to drive the ‘city’s or urban regeneration’ given our limited financial base. We need to refurbish and add a new face particularly to our old malls of the African Mall and the Main Mall,” he said.
According to the mayor, the business community needs to work with the city council as partners and find ways on how to develop the city, noting that a lot needs to be done despite a small budget. He said almost everything in the city needs to be refurbished including roads and the traffic system.
“We need to refurbish our road networks and generally improve the traffic system to improve mobility and ensure safety on our roads,” he said.
The mayor emphasised that there is an urgent imperative to improve the safety of the community and the neighbourhood through better street illumination and lighting. Touching on community issues, he stressed the need to work hard and promote small and medium enterprises, which he said in a way promote wealth generation and break the poverty trap for the poor.
He said this will also promote heavy investment by business and the private sector so that they create the much-needed jobs and employment while also creating and enhancing a new middle to high-income class so imperative to national wealth. “While under normal circumstances these would be viewed as challenges, my team and I view these as aspirations to work towards and achieve and as opportunities for an inclusive approach that involve a bringing together of minds and resources from the city council, the community and you, as business,” he said.
He further called on the business community to partner with the city council, work, support and contribute by coming up with ideas and capital to finance the planned developments, adding that they will work out a plan to repay them.