The Pan Afrikanist Watchman

The private sector umbrella organisations of Botswana and Türkiye signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation during a virtual meeting on Tuesday, 10 October 2022.

The tripartite MoU was signed by Mr. Gobusamang D. Keebine, President of Business Botswana, Mr. Rajiva Chandra, President of Botswana Exporters and Manufacturers Association (BEMA) and their Turkish counterpart Mr. Nail Olpak, President of Foreign
Economic Relations Board of Türkiye (DEIK).

The MoU foresees the establishment of a Business Council between the private sectors of both countries with the purposes of promoting trade, investments and industrial and technological
collaboration between Türkiye and Botswana private sectors and to identify potential and priority areas of cooperation on a win-win basis.

 
The Business Council is assigned to observe opportunities in the fields of trade, investments, industrial and technological cooperation, finance, bilateral and international collaboration and
submit proposals to the two governments on how to promote cooperation and overcome obstacles in trade and economic cooperation between Botswana and Türkiye.

The Business Council is also tasked to share know-how and experiences to support SMMEs.

Türkiye’s Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK), is a business diplomacy organisation assigned with the task of conducting the foreign economic relations of the Turkish private sector.

The objectives of DEIK are to assess investment opportunities at home and abroad, and establish partnerships with counterpart organisations around the world. DEIK has 150 bilateral Business Councils all around the world, including 47 in Africa.

It has 2.000 individual members that represent the leading entrepreneurs of Türkiye. It has been active particularly in
Africa in line with Türkiye’s strategic vision to promote trade and investment relations with African countries on the basis of mutual benefit.

President of DEIK, Mr. Nail Olpak said that “This is a fresh start that aims at adding momentum to cooperation between Turkish and Botswana business organisations”.

He added that bilateral trade volume between the two countries is currently below the real potential and the new Business Council will help in boosting trade and investment relations between two countries.

Turkish Ambassador to Botswana, Ms. Meltem Buyukkarakas welcomed the signing of the MoU as an important step forward in opening new channels of communication and raising awareness among the potential stakeholders of both sides.

She explained that the MoU was signed in line with the decision taken in the 2nd meeting of Türkiye-Botswana Joint Commission for Cooperation (JCC) which was held in 2021, co-chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Lemogang Kwape and his Turkish counterpart.

Ambassador Buyukkarakas stated that there has been a growing mutual interest from the companies of both countries to do business together and the new Business Council would be a platform of cooperation and experience sharing between Turkish and Botswana private sectors and would help in identifying trade and investment opportunities on win-win basis.

She underscored the unexploited potential of collaboration particularly in priority areas of both countries such as agro-processing, manufacturing, tourism, health, energy, mining and mineral beneficiation, digital technologies and infrastructure.

She said both sides must encourage more trade, but at the same time, should focus on investments with a long-term partnership
perspective.

She added “Türkiye is a strategic partner of Africa. Trade volume between Türkiye-Africa has reached around 35 billion USD last year and the value of Turkish investments in the Continent has surpassed 6 billion USD.

“We seek to extend the dynamic engagement of Turkish private
sector in many African countries to Botswana on a win-win basis.”

Business Botswana President Mr. Keebine said that thanks to this agreement being signed, business people in Botswana will start seeking more business opportunities in Turkey and business people in Türkiye will start focusing on investment opportunities in Botswana as well.

He also noted that there are overlapping priority areas for Türkiye and Botswana such as commercialising agriculture, issues of agro-processing and digitisation of applications and services that can be explored.

BEMA President Mr. Chandra also applauded this development and highlighted that the signed MoU will help take business relationships further between the two countries.

He expressed his wish to source raw materials from Türkiye and export Botswana products to Türkiye. He went on further to invite Turkish business people to consider importing Botswana diamonds.

Mr. Chandra also spoke of the importance of establishing joint ventures between business people of both countries and pointed out that business can only survive and prosper when both parties
win.

During the meeting, BITC made a presentation with regards to the opportunities Botswana offers to potential investors. BITC Director of Investment Promotion Mr. Moshie Ratsebe said that in
comparison to other African countries, Botswana is the centre of attraction for investors as it offers a lot of incentives to business people.

Further, he said that doing business in Botswana gives access to all
markets within SADC area. He indicated that considering Türkiye’s experience mainly in the agricultural, manufacturing, agro-processing and automotive sectors, Türkiye and Botswana
can work closely together and Turkish business people can contribute to Botswana in its efforts to diversify its economy away from diamonds.