Botswana and South Africa have resolved to accelerate implementation of projects, programmes, and initiatives classified as high-impact priority projects, as they are strategic to broader regional integration.
President Duma Boko and his South African counterpart made this observation when addressing the 6th Botswana-South Africa Bi-National Commission (BNC) in Gaborone.
The 6th BNC aims to accelerate implementation of projects, programmes, and initiatives classified as High Impact Priority Projects (HIPPs) due to their strategic significance in enhancing economic partnership, regional integration, trade facilitation, infrastructure connectivity, and sustainable development between the two countries and the broader region.
Due to the strategic significance of these high-impact priority projects in enhancing economic partnership, regional integration, and trade facilitation, Boko said there is a need for accelerated implementation.
He said some of the projects that need accelerated implementation include north-south corridor development; the Lesotho-South Africa-Botswana water transfer project; cooperation on joint fuel storage and petroleum infrastructure development; and Southern African Customs Union industrialisation and value chain development initiatives.
'These visions, these outcomes that we desire, are not self-executing. They require urgency, human urgency. People, creatures of flesh and blood, must execute these aspirations. We, therefore, must appreciate, and I have said and I maintain vigorously all the time, I am prosecuting a revolution. Otherwise, I would not be here," says President Boko.
For his part, President Cyril Ramaphosa said there are strategic opportunities that need to be pursued to expand our economic growth on a number of levels, including investments and trade in both countries.
"We need to ensure that our trade is more balanced. South Africa wishes to attract a greater number of diverse products from Botswana. A number of South African companies have expressed a desire to invest more in Botswana, creating more jobs, transferring skills, and contributing to the revenues of this country. We do want to deepen cooperation in all sectors of our economies," highlighted Ramaphosa.
A trade volume of $4.88 billion recorded between 2019 and 2023 represents the culmination of evolving bilateral commercial relationships between the two countries, influenced by global supply chain shifts and changing economic priorities.