Young Batswana keen to invest in Zim

Brian Benza
Staff Writer | Wednesday September 29, 2010 00:00

Mmegi is informed that during a meeting held in Gaborone a few weeks ago to host a Zimbabwean delegation, many young businesspeople and a few established corporates showed great interest in participating in the credit line.

Botswana pledged to extend the P500 million credit line to Zimbabwe last year, to rebuild that country's economy particularly the manufacturing sector. The two countries agreed that the credit line would benefit their respective private sectors, with the government of Botswana guaranteeing any finance extended by the Botswana private sector. Speaking on the sidelines of the National Business Conference (NBC), which ends here today, BOCCIM Executive Director, Maria Machailo-Ellis said they are hoping to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with their Zimbabwean counterparts before the end of the year.

'We have agreed with Zimbabwe to push this from both ends and we are hoping to finalise it before the end of the year. We are about to finalise the actual terms of the agreement and most of these were discussed when the Zimbabwean team came to Botswana a few weeks ago.

'After we sign the MoU, that's when we will come up with guidelines on how Batswana who have invested in Zimbabwe will be able to access their money,' she said.

Part of the negotiations with the Zimbabweans centre around Botswana's need to safeguard its citizens' investments in that country. It is expected that the final MoU will have provisions safeguarding Botswana investments in Zimbabwe, under the line of credit. Protection of investments will be included under a Bilateral Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement, Botswana is hoping Zimbabwe will sign and honour.

Zimbabwe requires US$8 billion for economic recovery and about US$45 billion to take the economy back to the period before the decade-long economic crisis. Botswana is among the few African countries to offer Zimbabwe a financial bailout, although the effort was nearly scuttled by a diplomatic tussle between the two countries early this year.