Submitting budget proposals for his ministry recently, the Acting Minister of Trade and Industry, Vincent Seretse, said the agricultural sector had 134 projects financed at P107 million, the service sector 101 projects financed at P52 million while the property and manufacturing sectors had 45 projects financed at P49 million. The investment has generated 1.693 jobs in the sectors covered. In spite of difficult global economic conditions, the Botswana Export Development and Investment Authority (BEDIA) generated investment inflows of P1 billion or 2,041 jobs as at the end of December 2011, Seretse "A comparison of this financial year and that of 2010/2011 shows that combined capital investments have so far increased by P467 million and will continue during the last quarter of this financial year," he said. Between April and December last year, the Ministry of Trade and Industry generated exports amounting to P242 million through BEDIA. The biggest contributors were salt, meat products, pvc pipes, tobacco extracts and wheat products.
Seretse told the House that BEDIA had contracted German company Senior Experten Service to train local manufacturing companies under BEDIA's export development Programme that was aimed at designing market entry strategies.
