Botswana needs Japan for rapid economic development (part 2)

In last week’s edition of this paper, my colleague Bame Piet threw in a very interesting piece about our relationship with Japan. What was most interesting about his work was that he had had a chance to intercourse with the ambassador of Japan on matters of trade between our two countries. His piece added a lot of value, in my opinion, about matters of trade that I discussed and continue to discuss this week.

I must mention that the purpose of my opinion in the last three weeks is not to antagonised China and Japan; but the objective here is to bring forth a strong argument on why we should pursue Japan as a development partner as opposed to China. It is simple, the Chinese have spread their wings far too wide and have stronger business relationships with other countries and we are very unlikely to make any difference if we try to squeeze ourselves into any existing cracks. Our relationship with the two countries can still continue side by side. But the bottom line is; you may have as many friends as you wish but you cannot have two best friends.