Africa-Press – Botswana. Skills development programmes and school curricula from pre-primary level should include productivity issues, a Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs’ official has suggested.
Speaking at a recent Botswana National Productivity Centre (BNPC) competitiveness conference, Mr Bonnie Jim said that would ensure collective responsibility for productivity and competitiveness.
That was achievable through promotion of dialogue, awareness and linkages at national, sectoral and community level, he said.
Mr Jim, who is productivity and economic performance director, said the national policy mooted by BNPC would provide a framework for dealing with productivity, competitiveness and work ethic issues.
BNPC is in the process of developing a national productivity and competitiveness policy and strategy in response to unsatisfactory performance indices.
BNPC information and research services manager, Dr Zelda Okatch noted that the 2022 IMD world competitiveness ranking placed Botswana 58 out of 63 countries in terms of productivity and competitiveness.
The assessment, for high and middle income countries, focused on Botswana’s economic performance, governance and business efficiency as well as infrastructure development, she explained.
Meanwhile the country has been ranked 137 out of 141 countries in business start-up time by the 2019 Ease of Doing Business Report.
Dr Okatch said further compilations by the World Bank revealed that it took 48 days to complete nine procedures required for starting a business in Botswana while in Mauritius, the same process comprised only four procedures and took five days to complete.
On the positive side, Botswana went seven places up since 2021 but still ranked 56 out of 63 countries in terms of business efficiency and infrastructure factors.
The first assessed the extent to which the national environment encouraged the private sector to perform in an innovative, profitable and responsible manner while the second measured the extent to which tangible and intangible assets in the economy met the needs of businesses.
Dr Okatch said although the performance indices demonstrated that Botswana’s competitiveness was less than satisfactory, the IDM data could be used to turn the situation around.
Apart from providing a comprehensive picture of Botswana’s competitiveness landscape, she said, it promoted stakeholder engagement, identified areas for improvement and helped to pinpoint areas for further research.
The stakeholder competitiveness conference was convened to facilitate dialogue on key inputs for the envisaged policy and strategy.
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