BOCCIM president, Mr Lekwalo Mosienyane says bureaucratic inertia continues to afflict the country’s business environment.
Speaking at the BOPEU Budget Breakfast discussion, Mr Mosienyane said government viewed the private sector as an engine of growth, wealth creation and employment, but it was disappointing that business people continued to encounter obstacles in their endeavour to achieve that.
He noted that the business community was also disappointed that the transformational issues which continued to impede the business environment and job creation were not dealt with in the 201516 budget speech.
He cited amongst the issues, the work and residents permits, levies, E-government, manufacturing, marquee projects, LEA, CEDA and others.
“BOCCIM would have preferred an update on the Trans- Kalahari Railway and the Mamabula Coal projects,” he said.
Mr Mosienyane said the manufacturing sector as a source of employment creation, including the nascent diamond cutting and polishing sub sector continued to flounder largely due to low productivity.
The recent updates that Teemane Diamond Polishing in Serowe was closing down would be going away with 400 jobs, he added.
For his part, Dr Langtone Maunganidze from University of Botswana Sociology Department said that the objectives of the discussion were to stimulate and strengthen dialogical capacities consistent with the country’s projected image of democracy.
He said the other objective included increasing direct popular participation in economic policy decisions, to widen union knowledge base on the co-evolution of state development plans and labour market issue through debate and exchange of information.
Also, he said the objective covered the promotion of worker economic participation in the planning process in order to appreciate the state’s position in bargaining council.
The discussion’s objective, he noted, included the promotion of social partnership as it brings together diverse interest groups, industry, legislature, civic groups and university.
Botswana Public Employees Union (BOPEU) president, Mr Andrew Motsamai said employees faced a problem of contending with high fuel prices, high rentals, high food prices and there had been no meaningful salary increase in the past three or four years.
Source : BOPA
Source : Botswana Daily News