REMARKS BY PRESIDENT KHAMA AT THE 35TH MEETING OF THE HIGH LEVEL CONSULTATIVE COUNCIL (HLCC)(28/11/13- Full Text) 1. It is a pleasure for me to welcome you all to this 35th meeting of the High Level Consultative Council. 2. Allow me to briefly update you on global and national issues that are of interest as we work towards achieving prosperity for all our citizens. 3. Although global prospects are now showing positive signals, the road to recovery still remains uncertain. World output growth is forecast to reach 2.9% in 2013 and possibly 3.6% in 2014.1 In the major advanced economies, activity is expected to gradually accelerate, however risks remain. 4. Coming closer home, Botswana’s economic recovery has been a challenge to sustain, with annual growth rate declining from 6.1% in 2011 to 4.2% in 2012 and ultimately to 3.6% in quarter two of 2013. Deceleration in real gross domestic product (GDP) in 2012 was mainly due to the mining sector, which is dependent on global demand, which declined by 7.0% while the non-mining sectors grew by 6.2%2. The latter being a very positive sign of our efforts towards economic diversification. 5. Projections in the medium term indicate moderate economic growth of around 4.9% per annum through to 2014, predicated on gloomy global prospects and the associated slow recovery of the mining sector.3 Inflation has fallen within the 3 to 6% target of the Bank of Botswana, and it is expected to remain within that range for the remainder of the year. It fell to 4.8 percent in October 2013, down from 5.0 percent in September 2013.4 6. Yet, it is important to maintain our usual self-restraint and vigilance as the threat of the economic downturn is still real. Government continues to work aggressively to catapult diversification and sustain growth in the economy. However, I wish to emphasize that this objective is not to be achieved by the Government alone. The private sector needs to actively and productively participate to drive and sustain this growth. [In further remarks His Excellency reminded the private sector of Governments commitment to support local products through the EDD programme, calling on the private sector to also embrace such local purchasing] 7. I believe you are aware of our Consultancy with the World Bank that aims to improve the Doing Business Environment. We maintain our committment and work towards turning this country into an investment destination of choice and a regional Hub for Southern Africa. You may be aware that the World Bank Doing Business 2014 report indicates that Botswana has moved nine places up from position 65 (having been revised from position 59) in 2013 to 56 in 2014. 8. I am expecting more improvements in due course when we would have started implementing the Doing Business reform Roadmap that the World Bank is finalizing with the involvement of most of you here. I have had the benefit of being briefed on some of the recommendations that the World Bank team is proposing to us, when the team presented to the Botswana Economic Advisory Council some two weeks ago. I am confident that once these recommendations are implemented there will be a great improvement in the Doing Business climate! 9. On yet another positive note, you may have noted that in this year’s Global Competitiveness Report rankings by the World Economic Forum (WEF) Botswana has moved up five (5) places. Improvements for the year are attributed largely to the country’s sound macroeconomic environment, where in this category the country has improved from position 81 in the previous year to position 24 this year. Of note is that Government efforts to maintain a balanced budget have borne fruit as Government Budget Balance is ranked 25th, Gross National Savings 23rd, and general Government Debt rated position 16th, out of 144 countries. This bears testimony to the efforts we have made to steer the country through the challenges of the global economic crisis over the past five years. 10. Earlier on I emphasized the importance of the private sector to participate more productively in the economy. The Cluster approach that we adopted last year following the recommendation from the “Botswana’s Competitiveness and Future Economic Strategy” study by Professor Michael Porter’s team offers great opportunity as it is a private sector growth area, with necessary support from Government. We adopted the initiative as an effort to re-focus our scarce implementation capacity on fields with critical mass and higher potential for success. The areas we prioritized to build the clusters around are those that already give us a competitive edge in terms of their export potential. Just to remind us all, these are: Diamonds, Tourism, Beef, Mining and Financial services. 11. I also take this opportunity to remind ourselves of the historic translocation of the De Beers diamond sales platform to Gaborone after nearly 80 years of operation in London. The first official sales commenced on the 11th of November, 2013. This has attracted global attention and the initial reports state that this has been a resounding success. 12. You will recall that in the last meeting we had two cluster areas namely, Diamonds and Financial Services presented the achievements they have made thus far. We will today receive an update on the Action items identified for these clusters at our meeting in May this year, from the relevant sectors 13. We shall also receive presentations from two other Cluster areas, being Beef and Tourism. Coincidentally, in the last few weeks our country’s travel and tourism offerings, as well as regional leadership in conservation issues, have been very much in the global and local media spotlight, dovetailing well with encouraging headlines in other areas of our performance, such as the ones I have just shared with you, and giving good flow of positive world-wide publicity for the country. On the other hand, the Beef industry has been facing some challenges but as we may all know, we have set ourselves on course to overcome such challenges. You shall therefore have the opportunity to contribute to the discussions on the proposed way forward for these two sectors. The Mining Cluster will present to this Council at its meeting in May 2014. [The President went on to note that due to the continued deficit of rainfall Government on Wednesday had decided to support farmers using broadcasting as well as row planting through ISPAAD, while also providing a 50% subsidy of cattle feed supplements nationwide] 14. Ladies and Gentlemen on another matter, a free press is part and parcel of a free market economy, as well as a free society. In this respect, I am sure that we all recognise the role that the media industry plays. It is in recognition of this fact that, since 1998 the media have been engaged as stakeholders in this HLCC process with their own sector. But, for the media to play such a constructive role it must, like every other industry, in the first instance be ethical and professional in its approach. It is for this reason that Government within this very forum has in the past welcomed assurances on the part of the press that a professional code of conduct had been adopted, in line with international norms and legitimate domestic expectation. 15. Naturally, we expected that such a stated commitment would lead to the growth of more objective, professional, fact driven reporting, free of obvious abuses such as the resort to innuendo and the deliberate twisting and sensationalizing of information. Instead what we too often see is what can only be described as a growing tendency to deliberately distort and mislead the public on the part of some practitioners. Be it to capture readership and profit or drive other agendas, such abuses are not acceptable in any democratic society. The extent of such abuse is arguably reflected in the growing resort by members of the public to civil suits against various private publications. This trend has already resulted in out of court settlements of over P 100,000, as well as court judgements against the publications. 16. From the perspective of Government, we are concerned at the growing amount of slander now being directed against members of the executive, including senior Government officials, who are subjected to personal attacks for carrying out their public duties. In this context, and given the absence of a credible regulator, it is only fair that Government now become more proactive in taking legal steps to protect its members from flagrant abuse. It has therefore been decided that where members of Government, including senior officials, have been the subject to such abuse by the press, Government will extend to them appropriate legal support. 17. Let me thank you for your kind attention and I look forward to a fruitful engagement in this meeting. PULA
Posted on: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 07:27:47 +0000
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