The minister said developing countries like Botswana are still faced with challenges that include financial constraints in order to integrate their economies into MTS. Moroka told participants that MTS presents market access opportunities resulting from trade liberalisation through agreements like WTO.
He said access to the lucrative market of 150 WTO member states is important for countries like Botswana, which have a small domestic market.
"It is important therefore that our stakeholders should know these agreements and understand how they can derive benefits from these and the trade tools," said Moroka.
The three-day MTS Open Door week ends tomorrow. It is meant to inform stakeholders about multilateral trade issues, take stock of achievements made, identify areas where there is not much progress and develop strategies to address the challenges.
It is sponsored by the Joint Integrated Technical Assistance Programme (JITAP), a multi- country and multi-agency capacity building programme designed for African countries.
Moroka said that so far, JITAP has assisted in building capacity in the public and private sectors as well as the civil society in a bid to help them understand trade agreements and trade negotiations.
"I would like to urge all stakeholders to continue to develop and strengthen requisite capacity to participate effectively in the integration of our economy in to the MTS," said Moroka. He urged Batswana to take advantage of JITAP before the country graduates from the programme.
Botswana joined the JITAP in 2003 and is graduating this year. Other countries that are benefiting from the programme include Cameroon, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Senegal and Zambia.
Meanwhile, Moroka observed that effective participation of African countries into the MTS could be achieved through the review of trade policies and implementation of WTO agreements.
