The Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC) is an integrated investment and trade promotion agency with a mandate of promoting Botswana’s investment and trade potential including managing Botswana’s nation brand initiatives. BITC recently launched its Corporate and Brand Strategy in Gaborone and has now embarked on promoting the country’s investment and trade potential to various international markets beginning with Johannesburg, South Africa.
“Led by the Minister of Trade and Industry, Hon. Dorcas Makgato-Malesu, BITC will host an event at the Michelangelo Hotel, Sandton on May 21, 2013, at 18:30, where we will share our country’s business opportunities with the South African Business Community with an interest to do business in Botswana. The event will be attended by the CEOs of local companies; members of the diplomatic corps residing in South Africa, intermediary organisations and captains of industry,” BITC said.
Currently Botswana is the world’s largest producer of quality gem diamonds by value, and over the years the government has used the revenues prudently to make significant human capital and infrastructural investments. Botswana has one of the world’s largest reserves of coal in the world, 212 billion tons, and has also in abundance of robust mineral resources such as copper, nickel, gold, uranium, and soda ash. Botswana has a stable, convertible currency and is a market led economy. The country is consistently ranked as having one of the top three economies in Africa, and is a regional leader in economic freedom.
A country of just over two million people and a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rate of USD
14.4 million (2011), Botswana is one of Africa’s most stable nations and boasts the continent’s longest continuous multiparty democracy. It is relatively free of corruption and has a good human rights record. Investor confidence has remained high during the Global Financial Crisis, as evidenced by the fact that the fastest growing sectors in 2011 were Construction, General Government & Trade and Hotels & Restaurants, which grew in real terms by over 10%.
In addition, Botswana has concluded and signed numerous bilateral and regional trade agreements with countries such as Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa. Some of these provide duty free and quota free market access like SACU FTA, while some accord preferential market access to Botswana’s goods and services e.g. SADC and AGOA.
Reporting to the country’s Ministry of Trade & Industry, the BITC is an amalgamation of the former Botswana International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) and the Botswana Export Development and Investment Authority (BEDIA). Its mandate is to promote inward investment, promote our exports and increase citizen participation in the economy. BITC has set up international offices in Johannesburg, London and Mumbai to ensure global market access.
