Minister hails business mission to Australia

FREDERICK KEBADIRETSE
Staff Writer | Friday September 30, 2011 00:00

 

Addressing journalists at a press briefing in Gaborone yesterday, the Minister of Trade and Industry said five more Australian companies would visit Botswana between October and November this year.

Minister Dorcas Makgato-Malesu and a multi-pronged delegation had just returned from a 10-day mission to Australia, Lesotho, Kenya and Tanzania that was composed of representatives of the Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources (MMEWR), the Education Hub, Botswana Development Corporation (BDC), Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) and private companies.

They visited Australian cities of Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth where they attended business seminars projecting Botswana as a regional hub with ample investment opportunities. Some Australian companies were about to finalise joint venture negotiations with Botswana firms, the minister said.

A highlight of the mission to Australia was BEDIA's signing of a trade and investment cooperation agreement with Queensland covering exchange programmes and joint promotional missions and conferences. Further, BEDIA had discussions with the Australia-Africa Business Council.

Minister Makgato-Malesu and her delegation also participated in the Africa-Down Under Conference where she made a presentation portraying Botswana as the Number One country for mining investment in Africa. Going forward on the Australian mission, she said her ministry would now work towards implementation of cooperation agreements by means of follow up visits between Australian and Botswana companies.

The minister said while in Kenya, she realised that there was a direct link between cooperatives and poverty eradication, adding that the government could benefit by including cooperatives in poverty eradication programmes.

Countries like Kenya had gone a long way in using cooperatives as vehicles of citizen economic empowerment, hence it was not surprising that cooperatives contributed 43% to the East African country's GDP, she said.