Gov�t Leads Buyers Of Local Goods
Pauline Dikuelo | Monday January 29, 2018 09:20
According to BITC’s 2016/2017 annual report, the survey states that about 66% of locally produced goods were consumed locally followed by South Africa with 13%, Zimbabwe with nine percent and Namibia with four percent while the rest of Africa, SADC region and Asia each at two percent.
“This therefore indicates that Africa, particularly the SADC region remains a potential market for Botswana,” read the report.
The aim of the survey was to identify available locally manufactured products and services and determine their level of export readiness in terms of quantity, quality and prices with the view to continuously promoting Botswana’s exports into regional and international markets.
The intention of the survey was to contribute towards economic diversification through exports development and in turn increase the economic base of Botswana as well as assist in creating sustainable employment opportunities. The audit targeted companies whose goods are in line with the organisation’s export development and promotion strategic plan.
According BITC, the survey covered services traded for the first time as opposed to the previous audits, which mainly concentrated on manufacturing goods alone. Key sectors identified for the services survey were transport and logistics, education, professional services like engineering, accounting, legal and others, ICT as well as financial services.
“Inclusion of services was made because trade in services in the country has been rising significantly and consequently needs to be studied and documented and understood for systematic interventions while exploring its export possibilities as well.”
Further the survey indicated that about 41% of the raw materials mainly used by manufacturing companies locally are sourced from South Africa while 25% of them are from local suppliers.
Actual capital investment realised by BITC facilitated companies during the period under review was P2.4 billion with a corresponding level of employments of 2,304 jobs. Out of the P2.4 billion recorded, the FDI companies raised a total investment of P1.5 billion with the remaining P939million as capital investment from Domestic Investments (DI).
Companies are involved in various sectors such as automotive, manufacturing industries, agriculture, education, property development, construction, transport and logistics, tourism and financial and business services.
These companies originate from various countries around the world including Mauritius, South Africa, India, Canada, Ethopia, Zimbabwe and China.