Africa-Press – Botswana. The Commonwealth of The Bahamas Prime Minister, Mr Philip Davis has advised local authorities to protect the country’s diamonds for future generations.
Speaking after a tour of Diamond Trading Centre Botswana (DTCB) on Tuesday, Mr Davis said as a leading diamond mining country he was always concerned that Botswana was not too involved in the process of adding value to the diamonds.
“I therefore implore you to protect your assets, not just for now, but for future generations and pursue the path of ensuring that value is added to your product here,” he said.
He said colonialism and domination were still in existence, albeit in a different form, and that they could only be surmounted through working together by countries with similar challenges such as Botswana and The Bahamas.
He noted that Africa was endowed with almost all the natural resources, saying all that was required was to ensure that they benefited the continent.
Minister of Minerals and Energy, Mr Lefoko Moagi agreed that as a leading diamond producer in terms of value, it was only natural that Botswana would want to participate more in the value addition chain process.
“Moving from rough to polished is about six fold increase in value,” he noted, adding that it was the value addition that had long evaded the country.
He promised The Bahamas leader that government would do all it could to protect the country’s diamonds since the two were inextricable.
“Botswana is diamonds and diamonds are Botswana,” he said, adding that was the reason why they protected mines and ensured they pushed their lifespan further.
Mr Moagi also stressed the need for Botswana to invest in mining expertise to ready for the era where minerals would no longer be economic to exploit.
“This will enable us to continue eking a living out of minerals through the expertise and experience that we could plough elsewhere in the world,” he said.
Mr Moagi expressed confidence that Mr Davis’ visit had laid a foundation for a stronger and more prosperous partnership between the two nations.
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