The University of Botswana and Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding which opens avenues for long-term collaborations between the two institutions.
Vice Chancellor, Professor David Norris, signed on behalf of UB, while BITC Acting Chief Executive Officer, Keletsositse Olebile signed for his institution during a ceremony held at the UB Council Chamber on May 8, 2018.
The collaboration is envisioned to promote interaction between UB and BITC in mutually beneficial areas of training, consulting, and research for the benefit of Batswana. In addition, the two institutions will, among others, collaborate in offering the Botswana Exporter Development Programme (BEDP), research activities on branding, marketing and international business, as well as student internship opportunities.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Professor Norris acknowledged the opening of avenues in areas of training, consulting, research and student exchange in the fields of international business, branding and marketing.
On June 20, 2018, the Faculty of Business through the Department of Marketing will run a BEDP training which Professor Norris highlighted it was to develop a pool of appropriately skilled exporters, and ensure that the real value of exports in Botswana’s economy was consistently growing over time. The programme will cover export awareness, planning and mentoring. He thanked BITC for choosing UB as its partner in such an initiative.
Professor Norris observed that there was a pressing need for Botswana to diversify her export base to reduce the risk of over-reliance on diamonds which accounted for 80 per cent of exports. “Nothing is more imperative at this point in time than a concerted effort to train and build capacity of current and potential exporters of non-traditional exports,” he pleaded. As such, Professor Norris said the MoU was more than just an academic dream but the beginning of a substantial cooperation between UB and BITC.
In response, Mr Olebile outlined BITC’s role and mandate to promote and attract investment, export development, as well as management of the national brand. Consequently, he said BITC was excited to sign the MoU as it came at a pivotal time for global development characterised by, among others, the signing of a Tripartite Trade Area Agreement encompassing three regional economic communities and the drafting of the Botswana Response Strategy for seven selected products that had been earmarked to maximise on the recently extended Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA).
The tripartite agreement, which is between the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), East African Commission (EAC) and Southern African Development Community (SADC), has the potential to boost trade by creating a huge single market of about 700 million people with an estimated GDP of well over US$1.4 million for Botswana’s goods and services, said Mr Olebile.
Therefore, he added that the MoU was in line with BITC’s flagship capacity building initiative - BEDP - which has been designed to enhance Botswana’s export competitiveness at different levels. Besides, he said UB and BITC collaborative approach was part of a deliberate strategy to create and maintain a strong export culture in Botswana. It is further to ensure participants understood the entire export value-chain and challenges therein.
“I am confident that this collaboration will inspire more joint innovative activities in future and drive the export diversification to even greater heights,” observed Mr Olebile.
Acting Dean of the Faculty of Business, Professor Motsomi Marobela, told the gathering that the signing of the MoU was testimony to the fact that “we are in business and we are doing business”. Professor Marobela said his faculty was endowed with business expertise and appealed to government, business and non-governmental organisation to utilise such.
Further, he enumerated a number of joint initiatives with entities such as Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime and the Auditor General through which they were imparting knowledge on issues such as business ethics and conduct. The faculty also sends students on attachment at Cresta Hotels countrywide.