Africa-Press – Botswana. Government remains resolute in prioritising ongoing projects over new ones hence continuing to allocate them a bulk of the national budget.
Speaking at a Budget Pitso breakfast seminar organised for MPs in Tlokweng on November 22, finance minister, Ms Peggy Serame said it would not be prudent to allocate funding to new projects without completing ongoing ones.
“A bulk of the national budget allocation, at any point, goes to ongoing projects and what remains is allocated amongst priority areas as well as programmes and projects that speak to those priority areas,” Ms Serame said.
She said priority areas included export-led growth, attracting foreign direct investment, supporting the private sector through business environment reforms and value chain development and innovation and digital transformation as well as financial sector reforms, infrastructure development and special planning, fiscal sustainability and education and human capital development.
“To improve service delivery in general, as the public sector, we will continue on a path of structural reforms, because that is what this economy requires.
It is based on what we see, our research, projections and everything.
That has to be a priority and everything that we do must speak to that,” she said.
She added that to ensure inclusivity, the minister would next year, when she present the budget speech, ensure that all constituencies are connected live at designated places, for constituents to gather and listen to the speech.
She therefore urged MPs to support the initiative by mobilising their constituents.
On the Budget Pitso, Ms Serame explained that the ministry organised it to discuss the 2023 Budget Strategy Paper, which she said was an important part of the budget preparation process as it provided the foundation for the budget allocations for the financial year 2024/2025.
She said the Budget Strategy Paper also provided an opportunity for the finance ministry to engage with all relevant stakeholders to hear their thoughts to assist in shaping the budget allocations.
She added that the budget speech was not only used for allocation of the budget, but also shared and proposed new policy or strategic directions, as may be required.
“So, the budget in itself, speaks to the numbers.
It also speaks to strategies and policies that we will pursue, as government to attain the objectives that we seek to attain,” she added.
She indicated that in order to do away with keeping all debates and workshops in Gaborone, a National Budget Pitso for Youth was in Mahalapye this year as well as the general stakeholders’ Budget Pitso in Francistown and Local Authorities Budget Pitso in Hukuntsi.
“The ministry found it important to hold the budget pitso in different areas around the country to ensure inclusivity in the discussions, debates and in shaping the allocations.
This was also meant to ensure that when I come up with the numbers in February next year, there are no surprises to a lot of people around because we would have engaged with you and you have a good idea of how the budget should look like,” she added.
Furthermore, Ms Serame encouraged the MPs to occasionally visit the Ministry of Finance and Bank of Botswana websites to appreciate information contained in the numerous documents relating to the budget and its performance.
“By so doing, you would keep abreast with what all the budget processes and all other economic issues you need to be informed about,” Ms Serame said.
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