BEMA calls for public-private sector collaboration
Isaac Pinielo | Wednesday May 18, 2016 15:45
BEMA president, Nkosi Mwaba told Mmegi Business this week that there is need for the two sectors to improve the competitiveness of the local manufacturing and export sectors into the region and international fraternity.
He said the country needs to intensify a public-private sector collaboration to ensure the momentum to achieve a developed nation status remains high.
“The government should focus on export development and promotion with the idea to gear the manufacturing sector to become an export-led sector,” the president said.
He indicated that the commitment does not only serve to facilitate the ease-of-doing business, but also encourages the private sector to step up efforts to invest in the development of the country’s economy.
Mwaba also said barriers to entry should be addressed, adding that there should be linkages between the private sector and government parastatal entities.
He cited the formalisation of a working relationship between BEMA and the Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC) as a good example of public-private sector relations.
According to Mwaba, BEMA has managed to influence reforms in government, adding that there is an improved level of dialogue with stakeholders.
He said the manufacturers’ advocacy body also co-chairs the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) reference group with the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry in which they are putting together a response strategy.
Botswana continues its poor performance making it among the least competitive economies.
The 2015-2016 Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) of the World Economic Forum ranked Botswana 71st out of 144 economies, which is however a slight improvement of three places as compared to the 74th position it clinched previously.
With a contracted competitiveness performance, Botswana (71st) continues to be outperformed by its peers in sub-Saharan Africa.
Mauritius remains the region’s most competitive economy (46th), closely followed by South Africa (49th) and Rwanda (58th).
Côte d’Ivoire (91st) and Ethiopia (109th) excel as this year’s largest improvers in the region overall.
South Africa, which is Botswana’s largest regional trading partner, rose seven places in the annual WEF Global Competitiveness Index.
In addition, the country still struggles on other pillars such as business sophistication (111th), market size (105th), innovation (102nd) higher education and training (100th) and goods market efficiency (95th). This is mainly triggered by the fact that Botswana is in the transition stage of development from being a factor-driven economy to an efficiency-driven one.
The GCR is an annual report published by the World Economic Forum based on the Global Competitiveness Index that integrates both the macro and micro economic aspects of competitiveness.
It uses 70 percent perception data obtained through the Executive Opinion Survey from high level private sector executives and 30 percent statistical data.