With Botswana struggling to rise from upper-middle-income status, it has been suggested improving productivity could be the catalyst that fast-tracks the country’s high-income dream.
Speaking during the launch of the IMD’s World Competitiveness Report, Botswana National Productivity Centre (BNPC) Executive Director, Christopher Diswai said improving productivity and competitiveness is one of the fastest ways to escape the middle-income trap.
He said this should be the driving force that spearheads Botswana’s transformation into a high-income economy by 2036.
Diswai added the country must establish where it falls short and identify the challenges it faces.
“Only then can it strive to achieve prosperity for all by 2036,” declared Diswai.
He said it is for this reason that BNPC has partnered with World Economic Forum (WEF), to assist in producing Botswana’s rankings in the Global Competitiveness Reports.
“Last year BNPC went a step further and engaged the Institute for Management Development (IMD) to obtain a more in-depth assessment of Botswana’s competitiveness position,” said Diswai.
The IDM’s World Competitiveness Report ranks countries in various fields such as investment in education, employee training in companies, and digital competitiveness among others.
Notably, Botswana has been ranked 63rd out of 64 countries when it comes to digital competitiveness.
BNPC Acting General Manager, Teedzani Majaule said the centre will engage with all key stakeholders to further analyse the results in these reports in the coming month.
“We will hold another webinar where BNPC and other key stakeholders will be speaking to these results, but putting it in the context of Botswana’s economic environment and offering policy solutions to remedy the situation,” revealed Majaule, adding this will ensure no one is left behind during the process of improving this country’s competitiveness.
