Africa-Press – Botswana. Government made efforts to ensure that the Selebi Phikwe Citrus project investors are well-settled and have no fear to start their venture and invest in Botswana.
This was said by Minister of Agriculture, Mr Fidelis Molao, at a joint press conference he was addressing alongside acting Minister of Entrepreneurship, Mr Molebatsi Molebatsi and Assistant Minister of Trade and Industry, Ms Beauty Manake on March 14.
Mr Molao said: “Government is a participator in this project and has ensured that the investors are well-settled and have no fear in executing their project. We need to emphasise however that this project was purely funded with private money.
“There was no money from government that was used for this project or any collaboration with government to fund this P300 million project.”
He said the investment was also clear indication that the investors had confidence in Botswana.
“Investors were also assured of security once they have invested in Botswana and that their money was safe,” he added.
Selebi Phikwe Citrus project is assuredly testament that Botswana provided a conducive environment for investors to be fully operational and effective and that was affirmed the project’s operations manager, Mr Johan van Vuuren in a recent interview.
Mr van Vuuren told BOPA that doing business in Botswana was good compared to other countries where they had other operations.
He thus appreciated the assistance they had been receiving from government ever since the start of the Selebi Phikwe Citrus project.
Also in a recent interview, SPEDU acting strategic projects director, Mr Maiba Samunzala, said embarking on such a massive project without obtaining an assistance or assurance from government could have been a daunting task.
“But with the facilitation from government through SPEDU in 2018, the investors managed to find land and settle well and kick-start their operations,” Mr Samunzala said.
He added that efforts were also made to ensure availability of power and raw water through the assistance from the Ministry of Lands and Water Affairs and the Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) at a reduced tariff from P7.56 to P1.61.
After assistance with land and water, investors were further facilitated with many other things to ensure that they felt at home.
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