President Masisi's Davos playbook
Friday, January 17, 2020
On the hunt: Masisi is expected to present Botswana's investment case PIC: MORERI SEJAKGOMO
But the world is changing and Davos isn’t what it used to be anymore. This year it is happening on the same week as the UK-Africa investment summit. So, whether the decision to go shake hands with the political and business elite of the world in the snow instead of attending a more focused, smaller, investment focused platform is a wise choice remains to be seen. Botswana possibly lost a full decade detached from the world at head of state level and will have to play a lot of catch up at these summits.
For the past several decades, world leaders, CEOs, tech titans, billionaires, philanthropists and the like have flocked to Davos, Switzerland with the goal of “improving the state of the world.” For developing countries, the goal has always been to network and take advantage of the tons of investors in Davos and put a positive spin on the message that their countries are ripe and ready for investment.
That sounds like good news. But the report also warns that this may simply be because our digital economy is still young, not because we are safe. As more people shop, bank and pay online, criminals will follow.We Batswana do not need a report to tell us that danger is real. Many of us have heard of or fallen victim to KYC scams. A caller impersonates your bank or mobile money provider. They say they need to “verify” your account. They ask...