That fact that Botswana’s economic growth imperative of becoming a high-income economy was the main subject of discussion at the Francistown gathering of the business community and government last week, is in and of itself a good thing. The debate about how Botswana can achieve that lofty goal of high-income needs to happen regularly, openly and honestly. All of us must promote such an exchange of views regarding this weighty matter.
After all, we in Botswana want to live in a land of abundant opportunities, high levels of personal safety and life expectancies and freedom. It is not unique to us, but a part of human nature. We desire the same standards of living and opportunities that you find in the United States, Europe, Japan, South Korea and Singapore to name but a few successful economies.
In so doing however, we must seriously note that a high income status is not going to come on a silver platter or land on our laps as some form of manna from heaven. We also must realise that we are not going to become a high income economy simply because we have declared so in our Vison 2036 document. In a similar vein, we are not going to reach the exclusive club of developed economies by merely talking about our ambitions
We cannot therefore happy talk ourselves into a high income economy. What we need instead is a bold, daring and transparent reform programme to usher in and expand the market economy in Botswana. This is critical condition because the market economy is our engine of growth to high income. We also have to realise that in the course of developing and executing such a policy reform plan, the state is undoubtedly set to encounter massive and stiff resistance from many interested quarters. That is natural given that the nature of the required reforms is such that in the course of their implementation, they will turn out to be the proverbial bitter but necessary medicine. We know that the reforms will be politically unpopular but the right thing to do nonetheless. The privatisation of state owned enterprises is one of the key reforms which elicit resistance but must be implemented.
The other reform that needs to be pursued vigorously to change our fortunes, is good governance. It means a new way of doing things in the public service to ensure that the reform programme will be led by people who are selected on the basis their talent, competence and a good track record of achievement. Nothing more and nothing less. We could borrow a leaf from the Chilean reform programme where among other things they brought in a team of high calibre economists from the University of Chicago to provide technical advice on the transition to a market economy. Similarly we need to ensure that here at home, we have the capacity as well as political will to implement required reforms and should we need of an infusion of foreign expertise in the process, so be it!
We also need a good dose of fiscal discipline if we are to become a developed country. This means that just like ordinary households, the government must ensure that it does not spend money it does not have. This unfortunately has not been the case in the last few years as we turned out budget deficits and consequently had to either draw down reserves or borrow. That does not comport with a country which wishes to become a developed economy. It is time therefore to moderate public spending and thereby promote savings and investment. Continuing to spend more money than we have in revenue, makes it difficult to contain inflation,
We must also begin to put the accent on trade openness instead of an insular approach where we think we can grow by closing the border and selling to ourselves. High income is a consequence of trading with the world by selling to and buying from them. It is about international competitiveness.
