The contours of the economic and business dimensions of Botswana’s foreign policy direction have been explicitly identified and redefined by the Ministry of International Relations in a series of domestic and international engagements with domestic and global players in investment and business.
Leveraging soft power, a key foreign policy tool to sustain the right external environment in pursuit of this agenda, lnternational Relations Minister, Dr Phenyo Butale has been in constant audience with global players in investment and business space to promote and sustain investment possibilities and business opportunities for Botswana and equally present to prospective investors an environment conducive to growth and development, in alignment with our commitment to fostering inclusive growth and prosperity for Batswana.
Regional integration is another tenet of our foreign policy direction as it presents an opportunity for the SADC region to pool resources together given its rising economic strength as a relatively stable and dynamic bloc.
Traditional, deeper linkages and the enduring spirit of friendly neighbourliness have provided impetus for developments in the region in infrastructure, human capital and other areas of human endeavour.
Our nation attaches importance to the fruits of economic diplomacy in ensuring economic growth, sustainable development, job creation and global competitiveness to propel land-linked Botswana to global power in areas of influence.
An important aspect of this transformation is the tectonic shift in our external economic relations, a change that has defined our trade and investment environment as it moves from an inward-oriented economy to a moderately outward-oriented one.
To put it into perspective, the past few years have witnessed a vibrant and wide-ranging discourse on our economic policy posture and there have been fundamental changes in the direction and priorities of our economic policy.
An important aspect of this transformation is the tectonic shift in our external economic relations, a change that has defined our trade and investment environment as it moves from an inward-oriented economy to a moderately outward-oriented one.
These changes have occurred at a time when global economic relations have been altered in fundamental ways – the shifts in the diamond markets, the emergence of new engines of growth in the world economy, the renewed interest in regional integration, the emergence of new communications and information tevhnologies and the globalization of economic activity.
These factors have somehow altered the external environment in which our economy, like any other, operates, hence a shift in the conduct of our foreign policy in relations to economic policy. Interestingly, economic policy makers within Government have been alive to these changes and have tried, with varying degree of success, to explicitly reorient domestic economic policies in order to meet the emerging challenges, including volatile diamond market, energy trends, climate change and fluctuating commodity markets.
While several policy documents have defined Government’s economic policy agenda fairly clearly, much needs to be done to explicitly articulate the implications of these changes on our foreign policy. Admittedly, foreign policy makers have come to recognize the fact that the heart of diplomacy at this moment, is evonomics.
Given that our foreign policy has been in the past influenced largely by non-economic, purely strategic or political or geopolitical priorities, the current Government seems to have placed much emphasis on the ramifications of economic policy on our long-term foreign policy framework, hence our focus on economic diplomacy.
In essence, we are cognizant of the business of foreign policy, anchored on the nascent urgency to look into economic diplomacy strategy, in alignment with investment and tourism strategies to fast-track business facilitation, enterprise development, promote people to people relations and the issue of the Diasporic communities where we create and sustain the worldwide web of overseas Batswana, which is critical to economic and social development as well as cultural exchange to share our values and norms.
Consistent with Government’s commitment to promote and sustain economic development through foreign direct investment (FDI), we should look at FDI as the best means of transferring business knowledge from the advanced economies as the skills and technology diffuse from such established global businesses into our economy through movement of skilled personnel, demands on input suppliers and supplies of superior output to users bring about the much needed technology not only defined in the conventional sense of production processes for existing and new products and services, but also organizational, marketing, distribution, procurement and logistics knowledge and systems.
History has shown that growth and development occur in areas that advance mobility. New technologies, institutions and production methods as well as rapid economic growth tend to favour areas that are open to human mobility, the same way we embrace movement of goods and services.
Compared with other forms of external finance, FDI flows are regarded as non-debt creating, less volatile and their returns depend on the performance of the projects financed by the investors. Buoyed by the sustained pursuit of FDI, our economic diplomats are gradually positioning Botswana as an emerging marketplace for international trade and transfer of knowledge skills and technology.
To demonstrate this commitment, Government has chosen to juxtapose the National Migration Policy and Diaspora Engagement Strategy as broader part of its economic development agenda, which is reflective of growing support for regional integration to build and sustain vibrant economic bloc.
This is premised on the basis that migration has been an integral component of economic development and poverty reduction and of course an important factor for achieving equitable developmenr owing to investment inflows, skills and knowledge transfer as well as labour mobility. Any impediments to mobility could deprieve our economy of prospects in terms of investment, jobs, skills and consequently of a path out of poverty.
History has shown that growth and development occur in areas that advance mobility. New technologies, institutions and production methods as well as rapid economic growth tend to favour areas that are open to human mobility, the same way we embrace movement of goods and services.
Taken as a whole, these are the critical factors that define the economic dimension of our foreign policy direction and Botswana presents a modern, liberal and open economy to the rest of the world, an economy that is dynamic and attuned to the forces of globalization. In a way, Botswana is an emerging economic player that few in the world can afford to ignore.
The author is governance and sustainability commentator. He served as Botswana’s diplomat to India in 2006.
