Africa-Press – Botswana. Botswana appreciates the good relations it shares with South Korea, which dates back to 1968.
Minister for State President, Mr Kabo Morwaeng, who was speaking during a courtesy call by the Korean Ambassador to Botswana, Mr Chull-joo Park, said the two nations had always had good relations, the longevity of which he said he was confident of.
“What we are now supposed to be doing is just to cement the relations, which have worked for us as a country,” he said.
Mr Morwaeng said South Korea had done a lot to support development projects in Botswana.
“The two countries are not only relating diplomatically for the sake of it, but there is concrete evidence to back up this good relationship, such as major roads,” he said, and particularly cited the 200km Serowe-Orapa road that was constructed by the Koreans in the 1980s.
He said another evidence of good relations was the assistance Botswana got from South Korea around 2016 through a donation of educational tablets worth around US$100 million, and a further US$700 000 that the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development received to help it cater for vulnerable groups.
“That was a serious contribution to the development of this country which we greatly appreciate,” he said.
Mr Morwaeng said as a developing country that strove for a high income status, Botswana still needed a lot of assistance to achieve its dream.
“We can only do that with assistance from our partners, and we consider South Korea to be a development partner.
It is important for people of both countries that we keep these relations going,” he said.
He said Botswana valued the relations between the two countries such that it could not let it go unnoticed. Mr Morwaeng further said South Korea should consider investing in Botswana, describing it as an investor-friendly country.
Going forward, he encouraged the two countries to focus on areas of investment with more emphasis on partnership as this would assist in skills transfer and empowerment of the locals.
“Political stability and the rule of law are guaranteed and the environment is conducive for investment,” he said.
For his part, Mr Park, who is based in South Africa, said the purpose of his visit to Botswana, his second since he assumed office, was to see how the two countries could further cement their bilateral relations for the years to come.
He also expressed confidence in the ability and potential of Botswana to become a high income country as it envisaged.
“I think it is just a matter of time and not if.
Korea is clearly willing to be a partner in mutual prosperity with Botswana in the years to come,” he said.
The ambassador said that his government wanted to engage with that of Botswana on how the two could work together to cement the relationships.
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