Botswana: The Ministry of Trade and Industry’s annual Leadership Forum is significant as it gives employees of the Ministry an opportunity to build long lasting work relations in the continuance of the execution of the Ministry mandate.
This was said by the MTI Permanent Secretary, Ms Malebogo Morakaladi, yesterday when giving the opening remarks at the ongoing MTI Leadership Forum held in Letlhakane.
Morakaladi highlighted that this year’s Leadership Forum is held under the theme Changing Mindsets: Making Execution Real to build a Resilient Economy.
“In view of the theme, the purpose of the MTI 11th Leadership Forum is thus to identify and prioritise strategic implementation initiatives that cultivate and inculcate a new culture of global competitiveness that will give more value to drive achievement of the intended outcomes in the year 2023/24, a quest for excellence through skills development and a change in conventional or fixed mindsets that set the tone for the MTI’s financial year 2023/24,” she added.
Morakaladi also acknowledged the past leaders for setting the foundation and creating a platform that enables the Minister to engage with his team at least once a year to discuss issues that contribute to the economic growth of this country.
She also expressed gratitude to the participants for attending the event, which she says was set mainly to focus on how best to take the Ministry forward as well as set milestones for every financial year.
Botswana will also host the 11th Meeting of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Council of Ministers of Trade in Gaborone from the 11th – the 12th of February 2023. Prior to that, there will be a meeting for Senior Trade Officials from 6th – 9th February 2023.
The meetings are expected to attract close to 200 delegates, among them African Ministers of Trade from the fifty-four (54) African Union (AU) Member States and representatives of Regional Economic Communities and Development Partners.
These meetings will conclude outstanding issues on the AfCFTA to facilitate implementation of the Agreement, which will provide Botswana’s Private Sector with market access to the larger African market of 1.3 billion and stimulate industrial development, investment and job creation which are in line with Botswana’s Vision 2036.