Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Africa-Verein, a German-African Business Association.
Speaking at the signing of MoU, the Ambassador of Botswana to Germany Tswelelo Moremi said Germany is one of the countries where local companies should consider doing business due to its high end knowledge in engineering and technology. She spoke of the need to move away from traditional ways of doing business and embrace new ideas of diversification, entrepreneurship and innovation as well as non traditional markets.
“This is the beginning of a long term business relationship with both sides exploring business opportunities and sharing their experiences for a win-win situation,” said Moremi.
She further stated that the objectives of the mission were to create awareness of Botswana as a potential leading destination for investment from Germany. She said that they want to create an opportunity for Botswana companies to explore trade and investment opportunities in Germany.
“We aim to identify trade and investment opportunities for the German private sector in Botswana and also to provide a platform for the country companies to present their capabilities and cultivate possible partnerships with their Botswana counterparts,” said Moremi.
Head of the German Delegation Christoph Kannengieber said Botswana should consider leveraging on to attract investment on energy, infrastructure, security, tourism, agriculture, mining, ICT and health services.
“Germany’s economy is doing very well in the EU and Botswana’s economy could benchmark from Germany,” he said.
BITC Chief Executive Letsebe Sejoe said in 2014 Botswana exported goods worth P76 billion adding that Botswana’s export commodities are highly concentrated in the mineral sector. He said diamonds and copper nickel combined constituted over 90 percent of exported products.
“Meat and meat products, machinery and electric equipment were negligible 1 percent of total exported products,” said Sejoe.
Regarding market access, the BITC CEO said Southern African Customs Union (SACU) has duty free and quota free market access to more than 50 million consumers in Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland. He stated Southern African Development Community (SADC) Trade Protocol and SADC-EU EPA.
“There are the on-going discussions of the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Free Trade Area. When concluded it will offer Botswana a market of over 700 million people,” he stated.
