Africa-Press – Botswana. Okavango District councillors have welcomed the Botswana Economic Transformation Programme (BETP).
Commenting during the special council meeting held Friday in Gumare, regarding the BETP Call for Ideas presentation by the ODC physical planning official, nominated councilor, Mr Sheta Kafuru said BETP was a commendable initiative because it emphasised the need to diversify the economy and move away from relying on diamonds.
Mr Kafuru said the government should do away with bureaucracy, to help speed up developments.
Another nominated councilor, Mr Kaukapita Kaukapita said the Okavango District should identify opportunities that could be explored such as natural resources, agriculture and their value which could benefit the district and the nation.
Mr Lekonne Masoko also a nominated councilor, said that the council had an income generation committee which already had initiatives that could be adopted and explored under BETP.
The ODC principal physical planner, Ms Lesego Maikano in her presentation said the submissions were open to individuals and organisations with fully funded projects or promising ideas.
She said the ideas should be ambitious, high impact, innovative, strategic and scalable.
BETP is a disciplined mechanism to translate good economics into real national outcomes, focused on high impact interventions to accelerate inclusive and sustainable growth, owned by government and supported by PEMANDU, she said.
In an interview, ODC deputy council chairperson, Mr Brian Samoka said the special full council meeting was purported to realign committees since there were new ones while some were renamed.
He said that councils were instructed by the parent ministry to establish investment companies, to help generate income, adding that government had employed a bottom up approach through the BETP Call for Ideas, for Batswana to submit ideas they deemed fit to diversify the economy.
Ideas can be submitted online or physically before the deadline on August 8.
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