Irrespective of how Botswana would want to localize, the country’s Labor and Home Affairs Minister Edwin Batshu said on Friday the country cannot isolate itself from the international players.
Addressing a long service award ceremony in Francistown, Botswana’s second largest city situated some 430 km north of the capital, Gaborone, Batshu said the diamond rich country is still in need for foreign workers.
Official figures from Statistics Botswana place foreigners working and residing in Botswana at nearly 800,000 against the country’s population of an estimated 2.1 million people.
The bulk of the foreign nationals living in Botswana are Chinese, Zimbabweans, Nigerians, Ghanaians and South Africans.
Many foreigners are professionals in the mining, agriculture, information and technology as well as in the accounting sectors. For many years, they have helped the country to grow its economy from one of the poorest nations across the world at independence in 1966 to become one of the few countries with a thriving financial system.
“Therefore, at any given time, we will have expatriates amongst us, working with us,” said Botswana’s minster responsible for labor issues.
Batshu added no economy will thrive without a blend of expatriates as they always bring along what the locals do not have.
He paid homage to expatriates currently working and residing in Botswana. Batshu appreciated the love showcased by the expatriate workers who have patiently continued to transfer skills to the locals.
He added locals have gradually taken over some of the posts which were previously held by foreigners after acquiring high technical expertise from them (expatriates). Enditem
Source: Xinhua
