A Botswana Confederation of Commerce, Industry and Manpower (BOCCIM) official, Dichaba Molobe set the ball rolling when he called on the government to leave business to the private sector. Speaking at the BOCCIM/Chamber of Trade Sweden Round Table discussion at the Grand Palm, the BOCCIM director of policy advocacy said government should focus on its core duties and allow the private sector to do what it does best.
“I think government is trying to do too much. They should allocate other roles to the private sector,” Molobe, who once worked for the Ministry of Trade and Industry, appealed. He called on government to rethink the role of the private sector in the economy. He wondered why government officials who go outside the country for benchmarking do not put to practice what they learnt. He said the government can learn so much from the private sector without spending money on expensive overseas trips. He suggested government officials making the benchmarking trips are just after claiming per diems. “We need to define the role of the government in regard to industrial development,” he proposed. He said BOCCIM has long been advocating for privatisation of state enterprises. He condemned government red tape and said investors should not be thrown from pillar to post when they are applying for trading licences.
