SPEDU, BB sign MoU
Onalenna Kelebeile | Wednesday October 17, 2018 15:48
SPEDU and Business Botswana signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work together to uplift the region and ensure that it becomes prosperous and create wealth. For the past several months the two have been working together to formalise a working relationship. Business Botswana acting chief executive officer Norman Moleele said during the signing ceremony that the private sector’s role has not only been operational in terms of constructive dialogue but have been engaged by government in key development strategies and policy formation.
He added that the private sector has been instrumental in improving the environment of doing business. “With Botswana’s economic landscape changing and being focused more towards diversification it has become even more imperative for the private sector to take the lead.
Moleele added that following the successful implementation of the Private Sector Development Programme 1 Business Botswana would be launching the PSDP2 that would be financed by the African Development Bank. “The aim of this project is to offer technical assistance for support to economic diversification. With this programme we are bringing experience and knowledge gained during the implementation of PSDP in the area of enterprise development. “We would like to see a special PSDP project for the SPEDU region which would focus on enhancing the sustainability of SMMEs in the area,” he added.
The chairperson of the SPEDU Board Tlhotlheletso Yane said the two parties are desirous of working together to form a regional chamber of commerce to the known as the Regional Business Voice Association. He said they would further more set up institutional and organisational structures as well as short-term structures as and when it deems necessary and expedient for the operation of a functional and effective chamber of commerce, which would be the central business focus in the SPEDU region.
Yane said since Business Botswana is a private sector representative body that many business communities in the region are affiliated to the chamber would be affiliated to the national body as part of its apex model contained in their Private Sector Development Strategy. “The project is primarily intended to support the private sector in the participation in the regional diversification drive of the SPEDU region. It entails setting up of a strong lobby forum and institutional framework for strategic involvement of the private sector in the mainstream economic development,” he added.
Yane further said though the MoU is not legally binding it carries a degree of seriousness and mutual respect and is used to establish official partnerships.
SPEDU CEO Dr Mokubung Mokubung said SPEDU and Business Botswana are both Botswana domiciled organisations which for the past years have been going in the same direction towards a similar destination but travelling separately along the same road.
”If we both agree that private sector companies are the engine of growth in every economy then we should be working together. If we both agree that job creation is a priority in Botswana then we should not have a problem in recognising the primacy of the private sector in achieving that goal. If we agree that Selebi-Phikwe should become Botswana’s industrial city then it should not be difficult for us to collaborate in attracting industrialists together,” he said.
He added that SPEDU stands to benefit a lot from this collaboration because Business Botswana has amassed a great knowledge and established a global network of business contacts that SPEDU can tap into. He noted that SPEDU is encouraged by the success that Business Botswana has notched up over decades and fully support its lobbying because it fully aligns with its own objectives. “It makes perfect sense that SPEDU and Business Botswana speak in one voice because they want the same thing from government. This collaboration is itself a national development initiative because it crafts a template that in future would be adopted by other regions,” he said.
He was happy that the two entities would now initiate joint trade and investment missions as well as support private sector participation in such missions.