Leather Park attracts eight investors
Pauline Dikuelo | Wednesday December 7, 2016 14:55
Delivering the 2016 State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, President Ian Khama said under the leather sub-sector, the establishment of a special purpose vehicle that will own, build, operate and maintain the leather industry park is progressing.
“Eight companies responded to an expression of interest which was published in June 2016 to identify potential investors. Once complete the leather park industry is expected to create direct employment of 6,000 to 8,000 jobs,” he said.
Earlier this year, the Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Vincent Seretse told Parliament that the much-anticipated Leather Park for Lobatse is running behind schedule as initially work was planned to commence in April this year and to be completed in September next year.
He noted that preliminary preparations such as procurement of the Technical Advisor and the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) delayed the project noting that it is now scheduled to start in April 2017, with full-scale commercial production planned to commence in January 2019. Initially, the full-scale commercial production was scheduled for January 2018.
At full capacity, the Leather Park is expected to produce about 9,300 square metres of finished leather per day. While some of the leather will be used locally, 80% would be exported as finished leather. According to the minister, while benchmarking in India for leather production, the delegation appreciated some elements critical in the establishment of the local leather project. Seretse said these include first-hand experience about the development and implementation of a successful leather industry in India, and taking into account the environmental issues related to the industry.
The other factors were the challenges associated with the industry and how they may be addressed. The delegation also witnessed the operation of the common effluent treatment plant (CETP), individual tanneries, footwear, leather goods; upholstery and garments factories that the envisaged local projects could embark on.
Seretse said the delegation also gathered business intelligence on suitable cleaner process technologies and environmentally friendly options for effluent disposal in view of the Botswana situation. Further government is working on implementation of recommendations from the beef value chain study being finalised while six additional value chain studies for horticulture, piggery, goats, honey, morula and tourism have been completed.