Botswana Offers Excellent Investment Opportunities
The Botswana Export Development & Investment Authority (BEDIA) has announced lot of Investment opportunities to attract Indian investors.
According to Jacob Nkate, chief executive officer of BEDIA, though Botswana is rich in mineral resources and precious diamonds, a lot of that is still untapped and thus it offers great opportunities to Indian entrepreneurs. “We want to use these resources to diversify into other business opportunities. Apart from Diamonds, we are also looking for partners in sectors like agriculture, leather products and glass manufacturing, as its raw material silica is found in abundance here,” he said.
The government of the Republic of Botswana had recently announced a number of incentives and the environment is also conductive for business investment, he added.
LT. General Mompati Sebogodi Merafhe, the Vice President of the Republic of Botswana who is in India as a part of his state visit to increase bilateral trade between the two nations stated that he is hopeful that his visit would be helpful in boosting bilateral trade between India and the Republic of Botswana. “Solid Economic relations define the nature of domestic and foreign policies of many countries,” he said.
Merafhe also pointed out that though the trade between the two countries at present is just around $30 million, he is hopeful that the quantum of trade would grow multiple folds in the coming years.
Ontiretse Scitta Monagen, regional representative of BEDIA in India informed that India at present exports heavy machinery and arms & ammunition to Botswana, while Botswana on the other hand just exports small quantity of scrap metal to India.
“Even the diamonds from Botswana that is cut and polished by the Indian craftsman is routed through third party countries. At present there are only two Indian companies namely Shrenuj and Suashish who have their direct presence in diamond cutting and polishing business. We invite more Indian companies to come and set up their manufacturing units here as we wish to encourage more jewellery exports than just than of uncut diamonds,” Monagen said.