Africa-Press – Botswana. Botswana will forever be grateful for Zambia’s involvement in its human capital development in the early days.
This was said by President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi during a luncheon to honour his Zambia counterpart, Mr Hakainde Hichilema in Kasane on Wednesday.
He said that such involvement was evident in the granting of scholarships and placement of students from Botswana in Zambian tertiary institutions in the early years of Botswana’s development.
“This was followed by a massive recruitment of Zambian nationals to work in various sectors of the economy of Botswana,” he said.
Dr Masisi stated that even to date, Botswana was still sending students to Zambia to study in various fields at both undergraduate and post-graduate levels.
He said that this was on top of other Batswana being part of the Zambian community through various reasons such as marriage.
Dr Masisi indicated that Mr Hichilema’s working visit would serve as a stepping stone to accelerate the conclusion of outstanding issues pertaining to the Kazungula Bridge, especially the bilateral agreement that aimed to establish and operationalise the Kazungula Bridge Authority (KBA). He disclosed that the visit had also allowed the two countries to reaffirm their strategic bilateral relations and commit themselves to working together to promote closer political, economic and social cooperation in keeping with their mutual desire to establish a firmer strategic and mutually beneficial partnership.
Dr Masisi invited Mr Hichilema for a state visit to deliberate on ways to expand the two countries’ economies.
Mr Hichilema said that he was happy that the official talks had clear intent of where the two countries wanted to be.
“I would want to see this spirit continue, and that is the only way citizens of both countries would see the value of this meeting. When we do so, we will achieve a lot,” he said. Mr Hichilema also stressed the need by public officers to justify why they were in those positions of power by delivering tangible results.
“When you delivered something and you can see its impact on the population such as the extra jobs created, the extra business opportunities for someone or an opportunity to sell a service, it gives your satisfaction as a leader, and that is what we should strive for,” he said.
He said that the success of the talks also justified why the two countries should look forward to formalising its outcomes in two months as agreed.
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