Swedish King jets in for historic state visit

MBONGENI MGUNI
Staff Writer | Tuesday March 22, 2011 00:00

 

The last time King Carl XVI Gustaf and his wife, Queen Silvia were in Botswana was 1976 for their honeymoon when they stayed in a safari lodge on the outskirts of the Chobe National Park. This time around, the King will not be accompanied by the Queen, who took ill in Paris on her way to Botswana and has since returned to Sweden.

Yesterday, Swedish diplomats said the significance of the King's visit could be read in the fact that the royals conduct three to four outward state visits per year and usually group countries into regions. This time around, the King and his entourage will only visit Botswana, their first visit to the African continent in more than two years.

Swedish Ambassador, Peter Tejler said the visit underlined the evolving and unique relationship the two countries have enjoyed since Botswana's independence in 1966. He said the relationship had transformed from one of donor/recipient to a partnership.

'Through the fast development here, you have progressed to a middle income country and the quality of the relationship has also changed. We used to be donor/recipient but now we are partners and that can be seen in the country strategy that Sweden uses to disburse funds,' he told journalists at a briefing. 'We are now focused on partnership where you have something to offer and we have something to offer.' Tejler cited the example of vehicle giant, Scania, which he said now enjoys a 70 percent market share on the local mining industry.

'The changes in the relationship have been very great and they are more reflective of Botswana's progress than ours. The market share Scania has shows the demand from your mining industry, while the electrification of villages project also reflects that Botswana is now wired for internet and many other opportunities,' he said.

The top diplomat said the agenda for King Carl XVI Gustaf's state visit would reflect the evolved nature of the relationship between the two countries. Thus, he said, the agenda would include fostering commercial ties in the private sector and non-governmental cooperation such as that offered to the Red Cross, disaster management and land survey modernisation.

'We also want a focus on HIV/AIDS which we have been pushing for a very long time; in fact, half of the allocation from Sweden is for HIV/AIDS. The proposal from our side is that we want to see how we can better support community based organisations to enhance local ownership,' Tejler said. The Swedes also want to foster sustainable tourism, which offers an area for cooperation that is not led by governments. During his state visit, King Carl XVI Gustaf will meet several times with President Ian Khama, including official talks this morning. He will also tour the SADC headquarters, the National Museum and Art Gallery, participate in a business seminar and attend a presentation on 'Sustainable Tourism Development' scheduled for Friday in Kasane.