Every year Botswana spends enormous amounts of money trying to attract investors here. That happens in various ways, but chiefly through the president’s travels abroad. Such visits and travels are very expensive. But also very essential. Cultivating relationships is both costly and time consuming. Our Embassies abroad also play a crucial role. Yet at home we still see disturbing scenes that go against our efforts to attract people from outside.
Having spent so much in getting those people to come here, it is important that once they arrive here we treat them with dignity. America was built on the back of immigrants. To this day, America still invites talent and expertise from outside. That is why America continues to be ahead in science, innovation, sports and everything else. Much more than America, Botswana needs people from outside who can come here to work but also to invest their money. We still have a very small population. We still import a lot from outside, including basics. There is a lot of unemployment. There is also a high shortage of skills. Over the years our education has been really flawed. It has gotten worse over time. As a result over fifty years after independence we find ourselves as a country without skills that our economy desperately needs. Not only that.
Even the wealthiest countries in the world find themselves saddled with shortage of skills and labour needed by their economies. Such wealthy countries also need people from outside who need to bring in their money. Let’s face it, Botswana could have been far ahead if we invested in the right kind of education. From early on, people like Patrick Van Rensburg advised government to go the route of vocational education,. They were not heeded. A very frightening culture is creeping among our people to discriminate people, including those who we spend money as a country and government to attract them to come here. Botswana has a lot of pain to go through. Bouts of populism and nationalism will of course disrupt, but we need to focus on the bigger picture.
We used to sell ourselves as the bastion of peace and tranquility. Probably that made sense many years ago when the region was going through liberation wars. Today it makers no sense to talk of peace and tranquility. Every country has peace. In fact even before attaining peace, some countries like Angola were attracting more foreign investments that the bastion of peace. Those in positions of leadership should not fuel hatred through their use of populist rhetoric. Many Batswana still take a deem view of foreigners coming into the country invest their money. For the record, there is no shortage of places where investors can take their money. In fact, peaceful as it is, even within the region, Botswana is hardly the best place for these foreigners to settle. We have competitors. And we have to know that. It is up to those in leadership to guide their followers through the use of appropriate language that is more welcoming.
