BDC to focus on economic transformation

Keikantse Lesemela

Botswana Development Corporation (BDC) is expected to invest a total of P3 billion in projects that will drive economic transformation, diversification and increase citizen economic participation.

Presenting the Midterm Review of NDP 11 in parliament recently, Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Peggy Serame said due to the projected decline in foreign Direct Investment flows as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the ministry is developing a strategy to refocus on domestic investment through integrated retention and aftercare strategies. In the next 12 months, BDC will invest approximately P800 million on projects that will drive economic recovery and sustain jobs. She said this would include establishment of large-scale equipment manufacturing industry to support key sectors such as rail, energy and water. BDC is the investment arm of government which celebrates 50 years this year. “Other projects that are planned to be undertaken include increasing automotive components manufacturing, increase food production such as for potatoes and citrus to meet local demand and to increase milk production to meet full local demand with vertical integration on milk products,” said Serame.

She said the use of indigenous plants for large scale manufacturing of health and food products and increasing real citizen participation in key sectors of the economy in terms of controlling equity stakes is another focus of their plan. However, the evaluation of the Economic Diversification Drive (EDD) is currently ongoing with the support of the United Nations Development Programme. Serame explained that preliminary results of the review indicate that even though the EDD strategy is still relevant for the economy, it has deficiencies such as the weak monitoring and evaluation framework. “The identified gaps will be addressed during the review which is expected to be completed by December 2020.”