Speaking at a review of the State of the Nation address in Gaborone, which was organised by the Botswana Council of Non Governmental Organisation (BOCONGO) yesterday, the SADC official said he found it surprising that the President omitted to discuss trade despite the fact that Botswana's economy - as a middle-income country - is dependent on trade especially that of minerals, agriculture, manufacturing and other industries.
Jelitto zoned in on government's poor implementation of its good trade policies. For example, despite having a small population, the country still relies too much on domestic markets to create wealth instead of taking advantage of the large global markets. He advised government to step up its effort at identifying foreign markets to grow the economy. Jellitto took a swipe at government's subsidy of agricultural programmes, a policy that he said has also been criticised by a World Bank summit. The programmes need to be reviewed because the country cannot have an agriculture that is heavily dependent on subsidies as that is not sustainable in the long run, he said. He said government needed to have in place policies that will encourage the growth of the agriculture sector such that it becomes a major player in generating foreign revenue for the country.
