Munich — Botswana youth carries on its shoulders the aspirations of the country to realise its ideals in terms of digital transfoprmation and innovation. Speaking at the Bits and Pretzels conference in Munich September 25, President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi said Botswana had in place the framework, policies and processes to harness the energy of the youth by facilitating their participation in efforts to realise the country's noble ideals.
Dr Masisi said with the provision of free basic education, Botswana was laying the foundation for its youth to later realise their full potential, thereby creating a perfect recipe for the creation of start-up business ventures.
He said government was continually making strides to make the environment even more conducive for young people to express their creativity.
Regarding the impediments that bureaucracy often set on the way of progressive thinking and delivery of programmes and projects, President Masisi said government was committed to removing any bottlenecks that could stand in the way of citizens fully participating in the innovation space.
Such unimpeded participation, he said would help push the country towards becoming the knowledge-based society that it aspired to become, therefore deviating away from over-dependence on resources.
On the delivery of public projects, the President told the conference that government always endeavoured to strike a balance between short and long-term projects, explaining that it was the successful delivery of the short-term projects such as the construction of facilities like roads, hospitals and schools that would catapult into the nation realising its long-term intentions such as job creation and capacitation towards digital transformation.
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Dr Masisi used the opportunity to also appeal to the audience to consider spreading their wings to Botswana especially since Germany was shifting focus to Africa.
He said Botswana's unparalleled legislative environments, and the continuous improvement of the ease of doing business made the country a good destination for studying, working as well as for leisure.
On leisure, President Masisi said the presence of a diversity of wildlife species, Botswana's ambient ecosystems and unique spaces made the country an inviting, enchanting and idyllic place to visit for sightseeing and other tourism activities.
In an interview prior to the President's engagement at the conference, foreign affairs minister, Dr Lemogang Kwape said Dr Masisi's invitation to speak at the Bits and Pretzels conference was confirmation that Botswana was headed in the right direction in innovation and digital transformation.
He said like the rest of the global community, Botswana aspired to use innovation to bring about cutting-edge solutions to its problems and those of the rest of the world.
Dr Kwape said Botswana's presence at the Bits and Pretzels conference, an annual gathering of like-minded individuals and businesses who plied their trades in the spheres of innovation of technology, affirmed its aspirations to move towards becoming a knowledge-based society.
BOPA
