The International Trade Centre (ITC) is a joint agency of the United Nations and the World Trade Organization that supports trade-related technical cooperation for developing economies. The ITC EPM is a free online tool developed by the International Trade Centre that identifies products, markets, and suppliers with unrealized export potential and ranks diversification opportunities.The tool covers data from approximately 226 economies and over 4000 product lines with biannual updates. The SACU customized EPM offer additional features when compared to generic ITC EPM.The additional features in the SACU EPM includes capability to analyse intra- SACU potential, SACU priority sectors, custom market groups for SACU region and it incorporates African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) tariff reduction schedules.Objectives of Export Potential MapThe key objectives of the Export Potential Map are to identify products, markets, and suppliers with unrealized or untapped export potential for established products, and to rank opportunities for product diversification into new or nascent export products. It translates rigorous trade analysis using big data into practical, actionable information to support trade development, export promotion, and sustainable economic growth. It helps countries to:• Identify promising products and markets for export promotion and development. • Estimate the potential value of exports achievable for a given exporter–product–market combination typically projected to a future year by combining Export supply capacity or performance of the exporting country, demand in the target market, market access conditions such as import tariffs, bilateral trade linkages or ease of trade, GDP and population growth projections and product relatedness for diversification analysis. • Quantify the gap between current (baseline) exports and potential exports to highlight unrealized opportunities. • Support prioritization of sectors and markets that can contribute to more diversified, less volatile, and more environmentally conscious export paths as the tool generally de-emphasizes purely extractive, environmentally damaging, or hazardous products where possible.Relevance of EPM to BotswanaBotswana’s economy remains heavily diamond-dependent (often 60–80% of merchandise exports, major share of revenue and foreign exchange), creating vulnerability to global demand, prices, and competition including lab-grown diamonds.EPM supports diversification under Vision 2036, the National Export Strategy, and the BITC Export Accelerator Program priorities (arts & crafts, agro-processing, jewellery, semi-precious stones, leather, meat & meat products, light manufacturing). It quantifies remaining potential in products like diamond and copper ores while ranking realistic adjacent products (e.g., meat, leather-related, certain manufactures) that leverage existing capabilities and can target SACU, AfCFTA, East Asia, or other markets.SACU membership itself provides duty-free access among members subject to rules of origin which EPM helps exploit by identifying complementary intra-regional flows.Targeted user groups for EPMThe Export Potential Map’s overarching goal is to turn complex economic analysis into a practical compass that helps governments, advisers, and businesses spot and act on the most promising export and diversification opportunities. The targeted users can benefit from the tool as follows:• Policymakers can use the tool to gather evidence to prioritize products and markets in national/regional export strategies and trade-policy negotiations. • Trade advisers and business support organizations can use the tool to provide detailed, data-driven guidance to companies on unexplored export opportunities. • Private companies can use the tool to identify attractive export markets for existing products and realistic new export products aligned with their product capabilities.Assisted provided by BITC on EPMBITC is proud to offer support capacity building to different stakeholders through its trainers who have recently been certified by International Trade Centre of the SACU EPM tool. To build capacity on the EPM methodology, SACU Secretariat recently conducted the first Training of Trainers session for its five member states where Botswana was BITC was represented by two staff members.Following the successful completion of this training BITC now have capacity to provide training to different stakeholders on the SACU EPM and provide support to existing and potential exporters to diversify current markets and identify new potential products that can be developed. BITC intends to provide training to other business support organizations to equip them with skills to position them to effectively assist Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises with their export strategies.BITC wishes to provide gratitude to the SACU Secretariat and International Trade Centre for developing this powerful tool that is expected to greatly assist companies to develop evidence-based export strategies.*Ntapu is the Executive Director - Export Development and Promotion at the Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC)
