Botswana looks to China on turning cities into investment centers

It is imperative for Botswana as a country to benchmark from other countries like China to find out what strategies they employed to turn their cities into investment centers, Trade and Industry Minister Dorcas Makgato-Malesu said on Wednesday.

"A typical example is China, where its transformation in an understatement," said the minister when deliberating a keynote address during the Botswana Confederation of Commerce Industry and Manpower (BOCCIM) gala dinner in Francistown, Botswana's second city located in the northeast part.

The City of Francistown situated some 430 km northeast of Botswana's capital, Gaborone, is considering reinventing itself into being an investment center of vibrancy by the year 2022.

Francistown is one of the oldest settlements in Botswana. It (City of Francistown) came into being following the discovery of gold fields in and around Francistown in the 1890s.

But the gold fields have since been depleted. And the Francistown municipality is expected to come up with initiatives aimed at breathing new economic life into this city hence the decision to turn it into an investment center of vibrancy by 2022.

"Botswana could certainly benefit by adopting a city development strategy," said the minister.

Makgato-Malesu hailed China for reinventing itself to become a global leader in trade.

"They (the Chinese) made this possible by implementing business strategies for different cities through determining each city's key strength, attractiveness and ensuring long term sustainable projects to various cities," said Makgato-Malesu.

According to the China's Country Guide website, coastal cities, especially in the southeast of China, have benefited greatly from the Asian nation's increasingly open trade policies.