27/07/2025
BOTSWANA LABOUR PARTY (BLP) POSITION PAPER ON ECONOMIC REVIVAL FOR BOTSWANA
July 2025
Botswana Labour Party notes the Botswana Economic Transformation Program (BETP)
launched by government earlier this month, touted as โa bold national initiative aimed at revitalizing the countryโs stagnant economy and reducing unemploymentโ. While we appreciate and laud government, if only for the realization that there exists a concern to be addressed, we differ with them on the approach they have opted for, of believing they can import consultants from overseas and outsource the thinking and coordination process to them. We posit that any revolutionary national economic transformation process has to be locally-initiated, locally-championed, locally-led, locally-coordinated
and locally-implemented. Patriotism has to be right at the heart of the process. External parties can be engaged, of course, but in a supporting role. We will here present our own alternative framework and explain it adequately.
1. OUR ORIENTATION
Botswana Labour Party is progressive and leftist in outlook. BLP obtains its ideological orientation from the Socialist Development Programme, which espouses the following characteristics:
a. Centralised planning within the context of a mixed economy
b. Social welfare and human dignity
c. Economic equity and equality
d. Broader participation of the general population in the economy through ownership of the means of production
e. Economic independence
f. Decentralisation and the creation of multiple economic hubs across the country
g. Adoption of appropriate technology for industrial development
One may assume it would be an ironic oxymoron of sorts for an organization that self-identifies as being of socialist orientation to be coming up with ideas for stimulating the development of private enterprises, but that would be due to a flawed understanding of the precepts of the Social Democratic Program. As will soon become evident, the approach we propose is one that hinges on community-led enterprises
2. OUR POINT OF DEPARTURE FROM CONVENTIONAL APPROACHES TO RAPID ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Like those of most other countries that just follow conventional neoliberal economic policies, Botswanaโs current economic growth strategy is overly reliant on โwooing foreign investorsโ. While we acknowledge that the wooing of foreign investors is a noble undertaking and affirm that it must be continued, we however observe that, alone, it is limited by the reality that we are compete with the rest of the world for the foreign investors we attempt to court. In many situations, we end up outcompeted by various other nations on comparative advantage and competitiveness on several scores.
The second mode through which our government tries to stimulate the setting up of commercial enterprises is through โempowermentโ initiatives and schemes that typically dole out sums of public money to random people in the hope that they will miraculously turn out to be good entrepreneurs. More often than not, those are nothing more than
politicking stunts that do not elicit the stated outcome.
We do acknowledge the existence within our citizenry of astute and shrewd entrepreneurs who have set up robust home-grown businesses, but we do concede that when taken as a proportion of the population at large, they are a tiny minority. Furthermore, as has often been highlighted by economists, the total share of active economic capital attributed to citizen investors is reported to be far outweighed by that of foreign investors; a reality that translates to the somber specter that Batswana are generally observers in the economy of their country.
It is not for lack of trying that Batswanaโs share of economic capital investment remains inferior to that of foreign investors; it is rather more because their individual efforts and initiatives are too dispersed, too unstrategic, often at too small a scale to escape serious diseconomies of scale, and often with too unsophisticated a management structure to survive competition launched by multinational corporations. In fact, a big proportion of the population engages in peasant farming which presents no prospects for economic growth.
For Botswana, adoption of the neoliberal orientation has caused spectacular problems whereby the nation that at one time was touted as the worldโs fastest growing economy for several consecutive years now has little to show for that. This is because the growth touted was a fluke as it only celebrated increases in the rate at which we were stripping diamonds from the ground and immediately passing them on to other countries in their raw form for processing. We have never managed to diversify our economy, and now structural changes in the diamond industry have caught up with us.
To break away from the orientation presented above, Botswana Labour Party proposes a paradigm shift in our economic approach. We propose a novel method of facilitating investments by systematically syndicating the capital resources of local investors, and we will explain this method fully in the sections below. We wish to, however, point out to other countries that have also pursued state-guided agglomeration of private capital to build competitive enterprises. Though some of the countries would deny that this is a form of Socialism, for all intents and purposes it is, though it has elements of mercantilism to it too.
3. THE SYNDICATED INVESTMENTS MODEL WE PROPOSE
Botswana Labour Partyโs proposal is the implementation of syndicated investments, with government as the main identifier of investment opportunities and the convener of invesors.
3.1 Related examples from other jurisdictions
In China, state-guided agglomeration of private capital has manifested what they call the Brigade system, whereby, as an initiative borne of centralized planning, village communes were set up by local governments, and, through them, citizensโcapital was systematically agglomerated to set up stipulated enterprises, many of which are responsible for the preponderant and ubiquitous Chinese products that now dominate the world economy. It was those Brigades that in the late 1980s sent hawkers wearing straw hats to countries like Botswana selling simple products like ointments and wristwatches to create markets for
their products, and over time the approach professionalized to retail shops.
In Israel, state-guided agglomeration of private capital has manifested in the form of the Kibbutz system of collective ownership of farms, and this then extended privately to other aspects of the economy. As a disclaimer, let us declare to all and sundry that we differ politically with the Israeli government, especially in terms of their treatment of the Palestinian people, but we have to acknowledge where they got an economic approach right.
Even in South Africa in the early 20th century, when the Afrikaners obtained political power from the British and formed the Union of South Africa, as part of the political effort to affirm their economic independence, the Afrikaners initiated agglomeration of capital from individual investors to set up home-grown corporations such as Eskom, Transnet and ABSA. (As another disclaimer, we declare our disdain for Apartheid and economic exclusion policies of the South African governments that were in place prior to 1994, but we have to acknowledge where their efforts towards local agglomeration of capital, though they erred by making it a racially-segregated scheme).
Another example is the British imperialist Cecil John Rhodes who in the late 19th century agglomerated capital from the British public to, among other initiatives, lay railways across Southern Africa. More than a century later, we are still reliant on those railroads. (We, however, wish to point out that Cecil John Rhodes had a dark legacy of subjugating black people across Southern Africa; but that does not erase the success of his efforts at agglomerating private capital towards the funding of mega projects).
3.2 The specific approach of state-guided agglomeration of private capital we envisage for Botswana
We propose that the government set up an Investment Planning Agency that will come up with specific business projects to be pursued. IPA will then draft business and management plans, complete with financial projections, operational plans, marketing and distribution plans etc, then invite everyone to put their money into those companies as share capital. We believe the Investment Planning Agency would be able to launch around ten projects per annum, each of which would have a market capitalisation of at least two billion P**a, thus resulting in new investments of at least 20 billion P**a per annum, creating an estimated 10,000 new jobs annually. We further believe each of the projects would further generate smaller spin-off enterprises of roughly the same market capitalisation as itself, thus raising the actual annual new investment capital generation to around 40 billion P**a.
We shall below present a list of 100 enterprise proposals that we posit would be viable to be undertaken through the proposed enterprise development model. We further propose that they be launched serially rather than simultaneously, in order to give each project adequate attention at the setup stage. Botswana Labour Party proposes the following implementation plan for each of these enterprises:
i. First of all, government would come up with enabling legislation for the envisaged approach and harmonization of any preexisting legislation to accommodate the ownership, financing and operation of the envisaged enterprises.
ii. Government will set up an Investment Planning Authority as a statutory entity.
iii. The Investment Planning Authority (IPA) will come up with the complete business plan.
iv. IPA will appoint coordinating partners like the Botswana Stock Exchange, a draft management team, a commercial bank through which to receive deposits from investors, industry consultants, and legal consultants.
v. IPA will host an expository workshop for the general public on the project. The workshop would run for a week or so allowing physical attendance and also getting broadcasted on dedicated platforms to allow remote attending.
vi. Opening for deposits from interested investors would start at the designated bank, under agreed thresholds and terms and conditions set out.
vii. IPA would recoup the expenses it incurred in undertaking groundwork preparation for the launching of the entity, then hand over the project to the management team to now execute.
viii. IPA would move to the next project.
We are convinced that the enterprise development model we propose is entirely doable. The following reasons support our affirmations:
a) Apart from initial groundwork costs that the government will incur to facilitate the launching of each initiative, the government will not be burdened with any capital investments as the initiatives will be funded by investors themselves. In fact, most of the groundwork costs the government initially incurs should be recouped directly from funds generated from the initiativeโs initial public offering.
b) It is not that our people totally do not have money they can invest; it is only that the money is spread all over and current existing investment vehicles, being mature ones, either offer very little profit of are oversubscribed.
c) Many of our people do try one or other businesses ventures, most of which fail for strategic reasons, and our people lose out.
d) Secondly, while citizens will be given first priority of investing in these new initiatives we propose, there will be accommodation for any foreign investors who may also be interested, thus opening up for Botswana to become a serious destination for foreign direct investment.
4. SPECIFIC PROJECTS WE ENVISAGE FOR THIS APPROACH
With full consideration of our environmental, climatic, geographic, social, economic, geopolitical and cultural setting, we thought long and hard about what could work best for the Botswana. We also factored in consideration not to compete unnecessarily with sectors where entrepreneurs have already established themselves adequately. There is enough room to accommodate existing investors and their enterprises alongside those we propose for setting up. In fact, we expect that economic expansion elsewhere will stimulate general enhancement of economic fundamentals for the entire economy and tremendously spur growth even for currently existing firms.
We here list a hundred projects we believe have prospects that are ripe enough for the Investment Planning Authority to start on right away. We have categorized them into twelve clusters, being:
i. Manufacturing,
ii. Agriculture,
iii. Technology,
iv. Tourism, Travel, Logistics and Transport,
v. Services,
vi. Energy,
vii. Finance,
viii. Engineering and Construction,
ix. Sports,
x. Healthcare
xi. Education
xii. Mining
4.1 MANUFACTURING
1. A company for manufacturing prefabricated buildings and their components
2. A manufacturing plant for solar panel roof tiles.
3. A laundry detergent powder spray tower plant.
4. A manufacturing plant for aftermarket motor vehicle parts.
5. A toys and plastics manufacturing company.
6. A medical equipment manufacturing company.
7. A cosmetics manufacturing company (beauty, hair, skincare products, perfumes)
8. A furniture manufacturing company.
9. A leather goods manufacturing company.
10. A glass manufacturing plant.
11. An artisanal motor vehicle and cart manufacturing plant.
12. A general manufacturer for electronic goods.
13. Tools and implements manufacturing
14. A firm for manufacturing screws, bolts, washers, hooks, pins.
15. A firm for manufacturing insecticides, herbicides and pesticides.
16. A firm for manufacturing electric storage batteries
17. A factory for producing magnets and electromagnets for various applications
18. A firm for producing sanitary towels, baby napkins/liners
19. A firm manufacturing computer parts or accessories
20. A firm for manufacturing motorcycles and their spare parts
21. A business for manufacturing plastic decorations and ornamental items
22. A firm for manufacturing refrigerators and air conditioners
23. A business for manufacturing processed synthetic staple fibres
24. A mega factory for manufacture insulated wire cables
25. A firm manufacturing orthopaedic supplies and prosthetics
26. A shoe factory
27. An army supplies manufacturing company
28. Manufacturing of vaccines
29. Production of biodiesel from algae.
30. Manufacturing of optical, medical, and surgical instruments.
31. A firm to manufacture semiconductors
32. LED Light Manufacturing: For domestic, commercial, or industrial purposes.
33. Organic Fertilizer Manufacturing
34. Drone & component manufacturing
35. Specialty chemicals (used in various industries such as food processing,
pharma, paints, etc).
36. Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) manufacturing
37. Smartphone accessories manufacturing
38. A firm for manufacturing railways coaches and locomotives.
4.2 AGRICULTURE
For agriculture, we implore that all forward planning should also take into consideration previous efforts to improve this sector. For example, long term efforts have already been expended into engineering the most suitable cattle breed for Botswana, being the Mosi composite breed. It, therefore, baffles the mind to then see a different strategy being championed whereby a president will say they are importing bulls from America and
Australia to alter genetics of the national herd.
Similarly, in terms of arable agriculture, in 1998 the government commissioned a study by the Israeli firm Tahal Consulting Engineers who performed crop suitability mapping for the whole country. The mapping considered soils types and fertility, water availability and quality, climate, among other factors, to identify which crops and horticultural plants could thrive best in which specific parcels of land in this country, and the results are expected to be valid for up to 200 years. As such, there is no need to duplicate that effort by engaging any other consultants for the same thing. We paid for the data, so let us now use it.
Under Agriculture, the following are projects we put forward for consideration:
1. A 1,000 cow dairy farm.
2. A company for farming herbs and pharmaceutical plants and processing them into finished products.
3. A company for farming potatoes.
4. A fish farm company.
5. A general horticulture company operating several mega farms and a processing plant.
6. An insect farming corporation
7. A donkey mega farm and processing factories for products.
8. A mushroom mega farm
9. Goat mega farms
10. A pest control company
11. A molluscs (snail) farm entity
12. A mega farm for dates
13. A Morama plantation and processing plant
14. A Moringa mega orchard and processing plant
15. A sisal plantation and processing plant
16. A hoodia plantation
17. A sengaparile plantation
18. A honey megafarm
19. An aloe vera mega farm
20. Cactus mega farm and product processing plant
21. Pseudograin farms for amaranth, quinoa etc.
22. An ostrich mega farm
23. A seed company
24. A frog farm
25. A cannabis products entity.
4.3 TECHNOLOGY
1. A company for creating animated videos plus virtual and augmented reality offerings.
2. An artificial intelligence company.
3. A cloud computing company
4. A financial technology company
5. A blockchain corporation with cryptocurrency applications, decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and smart contracts.
6. A robotics and artificial intelligence company
7. A cybersecurity and data protection startup.
4.4 TOURISM, TRAVEL, LOGISTICS AND TRANSPORT
1. A medical tourism company, setting up hospitals that recruit patients from all over the world.
2. A multifaceted travel agency.
3. An airliner for local and international travels.
4. A logistics airport hub for Southern Africa
5. A company for building and operating new railroads.
4.5 SERVICES
1. An international placement and job recruitment agency for African migrants
2. An E-commerce and logistics facilitator targeting the African market
3. A janitorial and auxiliary healthcare service company to do outsourced work abroad
4. A Pan African retail group
5. A Fast Food Franchise.
4.6 ENERGY
1. A solar streetlight manufacturing company
2. A corporation operating solar energy power stations for local use and export. (Similar-scaled existing projects: India's 2,245 MW Bhadla Solar Park, China's 2,200 MW Huanghe Hydropower Hainan Solar Park and Egypt's 1,650 MW Benban Solar Park).
3. A fuel station brand offering franchises.
4. A firm for extracting liquid fuels from coal.
4.7 FINANCE
1. A payment network facilitator.
2. A hedge fund.
3. A retail bank.
4. A currency printing and minting company.
4.8 ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION
1. A civil engineering and construction company for buildings, similar to Korean chaebols.
2. A civil engineering and road construction company, similar to Korean chaebols.
3. A pipeline civil engineering firm.
4.9 SPORTS
1. A competitive sporting corporation with its own Pan African television station.
2. A sports equipment manufacturing company
3. An electronic sports corporation.
4.10 HEALTHCARE
1. A clinical biotechnology firm
2. A telemedicine corporation targeting Africa and other emerging markets
3. A food supplements (nutraceutical) processing and manufacturing company (for dietary supplements, functional foods, and health drinks).
4.11 EDUCATION
1. An online university and school
2. An expansion of BUAN to convert it into a Pan-African university called African University of Agriculture.
4.12 MINING
1. Mining of agates and semiprecious rocks and crafting them into ornaments
2. A mining supplies manufacturing company
3. An international mining labour brokerage firm
4. A school of mining and related vocations
5. A firm for processing mineral products.
5. SUMMARY
Botswana Labour Party believes the state-guided agglomeration of private capital through syndicated investments is the best approach Botswana can apply to rescue the economy. It has multiple concurrent advantages. It would elicit the right interest in the general public to become real participants in the economy. It would be highly effective as it would position Botswana as a top destination for both local investment and foreign
direct investment. In fact, it would position Botswana - or any other country that may opt to
implement it properly - into one of the fastest growing economies.
We also believe, with proper implementation, these projects would be so geographically spread around the country as to assist in reducing the gross economic disparities that exist among regions of the country. Botswana Labour Party believes in decentralisation.
Botswana Labour Party believes strongly in empowerment of workers. We believe this proposal would give workers a lot to cheer for because it would dramatically increase job opportunities across the country. One of the most severe ills this country currently faces is the pandemic of joblessness. It would also give workers the chance to become part-owners of whichever enterprises they would opt to invest in.
We put these ideas forth not out of seeking any personal accolades but as the altruistic and patriotic efforts of ordinary citizens, and we hope they will be put to good use for the benefit of the country.
P**A!!!!!!!
Montwedi Muzila _________________________
(Publicity Secretary)
