In a packed Gaborone conference hall, President Duma Boko and, Vice President Ndaba Gaolathe, unveiled the Botswana Economic Transformation Programme (BETP) with fanfare and hope.
After decades of a diamond-fuelled economy and abstract plans buried in mountains of reports, here at last was a promise of something different – a radical departure from business as usual. The strategy was as novel as it was ambitious: “economic laboratories” would be convened as war-room workshops to fast-track solutions in key sectors. Government officials, private investors, and experts would lock themselves in these labs for weeks, dissecting problems and designing “Big Fast Results.” The air was electric with possibility.
