PS calls for structural shift of economy
Pauline Dikuelo | Friday June 16, 2017 16:52
Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee this week, Sekwakwa expressed dissatisfaction at the rate in which the economy is failing to be diversified adding that reflection on key fundamentals is important because they are constant. “In my view, we need to take a step back to see and work really hard to restructure our economy in many areas starting from the visa issues. There is a lot of structural issues that need focus on,” he said.
Sekwakwa was responding to a question from the Member of Parliament for Selebi-Phikwe West, Dithapelo Keorapetse who wanted to know if the ministry is happy with efforts that government has put forth to diversify the economy.
According to Sekwakwa, government is also ensuring that it addresses unemployment, which he said currently stands at 20%, and has been going down. He said his ministry will continue to ensure that there is macro-economic stability, which is a requisite for growth and economic diversification. In addition, he said they have also started the unbundling of big projects to ensure citizen participation.
“Government continues to face development challenges of unemployment, poverty and lack of implementation capacity,” he said.
Further the he said the ministry’s aim is to strengthen the country’s Public Investment Management System (PIMS).
“In February this year the International Monetary Fund (IMF) evaluated the strength of our Public Investment Management (PIMA) practices in Botswana. The evaluation report has identified some strengths which include but not limited to effective financial management and procurement systems as well as efficient planning, budget and budgeting controls,” he said.
He said the report also identified some weaknesses on the PIMA such as project costing and management highlighting that such results will be used to develop strategies intended to bring efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of NDP 11 investment projects.
Sekwakwa also noted that the National Risk Assessment (NRA) on money laundering and terrorist financing which commenced in March last year was completed in February this year. He said the objective of the NRA is to identify, assess and understand the money laundering and terrorist financing risks in Botswana as well as identify strategies for mitigating against such risks.
“We are crafting a new law that would strengthen our organs like BURS, transfer pricing as well as moving of funds across the country to try and address the illicit financial flows issues,” he said.