27 Feb 2025

Botswana is inspired by China’s development record, the Vice President Mr Ndaba Gaolathe has said.

He was speaking at the signing of an agreement on economic and technical cooperation between governments of Botswana and China yesterday.

The agreement provides a financial grant amounting to approximately P190 million. Under this accord, the two governments will identify and agree on the development projects to be funded through this grant to ensure alignment with shared goals and strategic objectives.

Mr Gaolathe,  who is also a finance minister, said China’s ability to transform its society within 50 years was remarkable. 

He said China had been able to move many of its people out of poverty through proper economic stewardship, quadrupling income and growing its economy every year.

Mr Gaolathe said Botswana had received substantial support through loans and grants from China which had been instrumental in driving various development projects. 

“Botswana has benefitted in a number of sectors including transport, education, agriculture, youth and environment, among others.”  Mr Gaolathe  also said the grant came at an opportune time when government was exploring potential revenue sources to cushion the budget deficits that Botswana was experiencing.

He said government was looking for partnerships such as the one with China for the delivery of the development agenda, noting that  it was important to nurture this kind of relationship to ensure stronger economic cooperation between the two countries.

“As a new government, we have had to relook at the national priorities specifically to reset and implement deliberate reforms and initiatives that will impact the lives of Batswana. I can only request at this point, that we speed up implementation of these grants in order to ascertain immediate beneficial impact.”

Mr Gaolathe said government would propose impactful projects to be considered for implementation under this grant. 

He assured Chinese government of the full commitment to the support they gave to Botswana and the continued collaboration between the two governments.

Chinese ambassador to Botswana, Mr Fan Yong, reaffirmed the friendship and longstanding relations between the two countries, saying it was well grounded.

“Our relation with Botswana will not change even though we have the change of government leaders,” he said.

Mr Fan said they were willing to share China’s economic success over the 50 years with Africa.

He said under the framework of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), Botswana and China strengthened their bilateral and trade relations. He said they would in future discuss in depth the future projects which could benefit both their people more as they did with other projects.

Today’s grant offer was made during the bilateral talks between President of China Mr Xi Jinping and the former President, Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi, on the margins of the 2024 Summit of FOCAC in Beijing, China in September 2024. 

This grant bring the amount of grants offered to Botswana since 2018 to approximately P1 billion. The two governments have since signed three Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreements between 2018 and 2021.

Recent projects undertaken with the Chinese support are the Mmopane Primary School which started admitting students in January 2021 and Ramaeba Primary School in Kazungula, which started operations in January 2025. ENDS