Political will buoys NBC
Chakalisa Dube | Friday September 14, 2018 12:38
FRANCISTOWN: There seem to be a change of attitudes towards the premier biennial NBC that brings together captains of industry, public and private sector leaders under one roof. The main purpose is to formulate new ideas on simplifying the way of doing business and keeping the country competitive on many fronts.
The 2018 edition of the NBC in particular sought to identify paths for Botswana to make the economic leap from an upper middle income to a high-income economy by 2036 in line with Vision 2036. The theme of this year’s conference was, ‘Breakthrough to a high income Botswana- The role of the private sector in charting the path’.
For the first time, perhaps to the amusement of Business Botswana (BB), which had collaborated with the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry to host the just ended event that the NBC was over subscribed with some delegates literally without seats.
There was full participation from the delegates, which demonstrated that they were focussed on the business at hand.
Organisers had to incessantly make announcements for people to bear with them as the attendance had bulged beyond their planned numbers. In the previous NBCs, attendance was not a worrying issue as spaces in the hall were hardly filled up.
BB president north, Humphrey Nawa expressed optimism that all resolutions taken at the conference would be implemented timely. He stressed that resolutions and recommendations taken in the past have failed to see the light of the day owing to lack of political will.
“There appears to be political will by the current political leadership to help the private sector thrive. I have strong hope that the resolutions taken at the conference will be fully implemented by the current political leadership which would ultimately help the private sector to grow and expectedly help the economy thrive,” said Nawa.
BB president, Gobusamang Keebine said in appreciation of Masisi’s positive gesture towards supporting business and pubic sectors: “Let us take this opportunity with our transformative leader Masisi to ensure our efforts lead us all to attain a high income Botswana”.
Since the inception of NBC in1988, BB shows that considerable debates have also focussed on privatisation and strengthening public-private partnerships as possible solutions for sustained prosperity.
The mood at the NBC was that, it should not just be talk over this and that without providing solutions to nagging national issues.
Although President Masisi who did the official opening of the conference a bit late in the day due to Cabinet meeting pressure, compensated the lost time by pledging his time to stay longer when he was supposed to exit immediately.
To the amusement of the conference, Masisi did his official speech and went into the ‘conversations with the President’, which was a question and answer session by Tshepidi Moremong, head of coverage Africa at Rand Merchant Bank.
When he was done with his assignment, Masisi pledged more time to stay in the conference as he seemingly enjoyed his conversations with the people.
Unless he could not do what he meant, Masisi has pledged that his government will undo all prohibitive and backward laws that render Botswana unattractive in terms of attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), which the country is competing for with the rest of the world.
He would then share his recent story of globetrotting across the world.
“Considering the time I am allowed to serve by the electorate as the decision-makers, I pledge to play a catalytic role in the growth of the economy and help build strong machinery to propel our economy forward,” Masisi said to a thunderous applause.
The President who was now seemingly buoyed by the positive mood in a hall full of over 400 people indicated that as part of investment, he was in a desperate hurry to serve as the political role was a passing role.
His advice was that people should not waste their time doing the mundane, but rather they should channel their energies towards doing new things for the country.
Masisi was adamant that he would follow where talent was domestically and internationally and follow those that have the best to come and help in growing the Botswana economy. “You need to keep your targets focussed. It’s important that you also don’t bite more than you can chew. You ought to know who you are, where you are and what time in the space of things relative to others,” the President said, emphasising that people can create the best chances of success themselves. Masisi indicated that his first overseas trip as a country was to go to the Republic of China and, “we succeeded 100% in finding all the finances we needed to take off our projects”.
More importantly, he said is the ingenuity, creativity, given the many advantages the country has such as small size, geographic location and many others.
He noted that since Botswana is a small market given its population, there is a need to be willing to work harder.
“I came back from China via Seychelles recently and we managed to make an agreement for the importation of 48 tonnes of beef monthly. Not just beef, but quality beef with good pricing,” he revealed and indicated that farmers should benefit directly from the deal.Debswana managing director, Balisi Bonyongo was the right man to set the scene of the conference as he moderated a few sessions on the day on Monday. He is an accomplished miner who has been in the mining industry for the past 25 years.
Articulating the story of Botswana diamond, he observed that diamonds have taken the country to where it is today and unfortunately they can’t take the country anywhere up.
The sad reality he said was that the past does not necessarily reflect that Botswana is still shining even today.
“Faith is believing and acting upon what you believe in. Breakthroughs will not come depending on our history. The future of this country is in the hands of people in this room,” he told the conference, indicating that there is a tendency of people putting money in the things they are not supposed to.
The line up of speakers and moderators that included BB president, Keebine, Vision 2036 chairperson and resident director and CEO of De Beers Botswana Neo Moroka, Dr Thapelo Matsheka, Matthey Blaise (Switzerland), Vaino Reinart and Rein Lang (Estonia), Minister Bogolo Kenewendo, Kenneth Molosi, Boyce Sebetela and Lucky Moahi amongst others were focussed on change that could help the country attain high income status.