Airport City SEZ set to accelerate economic growth, create jobs, bolster exports
President Mokgweetsi Masisi has officially launched the much-anticipated Airport City Special Economic Zone (SEZ), which is a significant step towards realizing a fully-fledged operational SEZ equipped with modern factories and other amenities.
“It is with a profound sense of gratification that I stand before you today, to witness a watershed moment in the economic transformation of our beautiful country, Botswana – the official launch of the Airport City Special Economic Zone. Indeed, this is more than just another moment to celebrate a new development, but a landmark testament of yet another step forward in our journey to catapult Botswana into a High- Income Economic status,” said the President, at the televised event attended by among others top diplomats, international investors, licensed SEZA companies, among others.
According to the President, the launch of the Airport City SEZ, clearly demonstrates, positive results of Government’s foresight, planning, and execution. ‘It is worth noting that, the development of SEZs, not only in Botswana but globally, is a costly exercise, in terms of both resource allocation to lay out the infrastructure and the time it takes to bring it to fruition, as there are intense preliminary studies and subsequent designs that are done before ground-breaking’
Masisi told the gathering that, the country’s aspirations are captured in the National Vision 2036 whose first pillar of Sustainable Economic Development is focused on transforming Botswana into a High-Income economy by 2036. Botswana has envisaged to be an economy that will be export-led, diversified, as well as characterised by broad-based participation of citizens, high volume of job creation, and sustainable economic growth driven by high levels of productivity.
“All of these aspirations speak to the mandate of SEZA, which targets export-focused premier investors with impactful projects. That is, projects which can spur the attainment of accelerated economic growth and development, thus enabling us to solve our national challenges, such as high unemployment, a high import bill, as well as food, water, and energy insecurity,” he said as a matter of fact. The Airport City SEZ, is adjacent to Botswana’s largest airport and covers an area of over 800 hectares. It is a mixed use SEZ at which key economic activities will include among others Diamond Beneficiation; Specialist Automotive; Cargo, Freight and Logistics; Plastics – Injection Moulding as well as manufacturing of Pharmaceuticals.
To ensure this SEZ is ready for licensed investors, SEZA is currently constructing four investor factory shells at a cost of P134,728,916 million. The project is an integrated office – warehouse space spanning over an area of Four Thousand Square Meters (4,000sqm).Speaking at the same event, minister of trade and industry, Mmusi Kgafela heaped praises on SEZA, an authority responsible for developing, managing, and regulating all activities within Botswana’s Special Economic Zones (SEZs). “I must say that I am encouraged with the progress that SEZA has made in the delivery of the underlying infrastructure projects at its SEZs, which is a crucial step towards making the SEZs a reality in the face of the many challenges that they encountered in undertaking their mandate,” he said.
The newly launched Airport City SEZ is part of Government’s multi-pronged efforts to exploit SEZs to achieve accelerated rates of economic growth, diversification, employment creation and innovation, elaborated the trade minister.
Furthermore, the Chairperson of SEZA board of directors, Rorisang Modikana, said the launch of the Airport City comes at an opportune time the City of Gaborone as it signals an opportunity for significant economic development and employment creation. With its envisaged infrastructure development projects and investment opportunities, we also expect the Airport City SEZ to improve the city’s aesthetics and generate investment opportunities for Batswana, “stressed Modikana.