The ERTP was necessitated by the negative impact envisaged on the global and national economies as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Botswana had just published and finalised its Mid-Term Review of the National Development Plan (NDP) 11. The NDP11 had noted Botswana’s deteriorating fiscal position, the need to diversify the economy and exports, the uncertainties in the diamond industry and Botswana’s poor economic growth, which was failing to deal with the increasing (youth) unemployment. Then COVID-19 hit, meaning all the plans already made would now be met with an even worse fiscal situation, a worse budget, an altered economy and very different priorities.
In that sense, the ERTP was positioned to revisit and rethink the Mid-Term Review whilst maintaining its core priorities of ensuring continued macro-economic strength and stability, investing in economic infrastructure, developing human capital, promoting an export-led economy, improving the efficiency of government spending and financing, developing a vibrant agricultural sector, promoting citizen economic empowerment, investing in the creative industry and growing a safe, sound and inclusive financial services sector.
The ERTP was also forced to incorporate and consider other short-term policies that came as a result of COVID-19 such as those government introduced such as the wage subsidy policies, COVID-19 Food Relief, Industry Support Funds and others. Other longer-term policies such as the UNDP-funded Informal Sector Recovery Plan and COVID-19 Pandemic Recovery Plan for the Private Sector also provided shorter-term relief but the ERTP had to now consolidate all of these efforts in order to make a longer-term plan that would give Botswana the best chance of attaining its Vision 2036 goals of becoming a high-income country.
So the basic premise of the ERTP was simple. We already had a tough fiscal situation pre-COVID-19. COVID-19 is likely to set us more than a decade backwards; we cannot continue on the same path. The multi-stakeholder approach to the development of the policy also ensured as many bases were touched to ensure that the final policy was all-encompassing. The policy would also ensure that though challenges existed, Botswana would also take advantage of the opportunities that would be created by the crisis.
The ERTP would also be expected to speed up the Botswana Transformation Project by amongst others building competitiveness, accelerating privatisation, developing enabling infrastructure and putting in place regulatory reform that would allow for transformation to happen in Botswana. The prioritisation of the programmes to be funded would be based more on their long term benefits to structural change in the Botswana economy.
On the above-stated basis, I fully support the ERTP at a conceptual and ideological level.
*Mphoeng is a director at Spectrum Analytics, a citizen-owned data analytics company that offers services in Digital Transformation Consultancy, application development and process automation and improvement. Previously worked for the University of Botswana as Lecturer in Accounting and Finance, Botswana Investment Fund Management (BIFM), Standard Chartered Bank and Bank of Botswana.
