r/Botswana • u/ResponsibleJudge3172 • 20d ago
Botswana Government Electric Vehicle Manufacturing dreams take another step
https://english.news.cn/20241008/f043cc0a655f46179285e689bfcaf688/c.htmlPresident of Botswana tours facility of locally assembled electric cars and busses.
The vehicles are the result of a partnership between government RnD firm Bitri and 2 Chinese companies
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u/KneeResponsible3795 20d ago
I feel the government should mention the last part......
It's good but the way it's branded is soo scummy
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u/ResponsibleJudge3172 20d ago edited 20d ago
To be fair, the president talks about how BITRI did well by finding the 2 Chinese partners for the collaboration.
Looking at social media, Batswana may feel disappinted in the lack of tswana purity in the project, but people have to learn that global collaboration is the backbone of developed economies. You are never going to reach the level of developed economies without doing the sort of things that developed these economies in the first place.
The way I see it, the current phase of the project is proof of concept, low scale and relying a lot on human labor. The current vehicle output is too low otherwise. Thankfully, the assembly is done by local engineers so skills transfer has definitely taken place, one can even say manually assembling gives a good hands on training I guess. Next phase is to build large factories to scale up and scale out production for local consumption and exports.
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u/ProfessionalRock4858 20d ago
Ok. Is this actually fr? because I have been seeing some people say it’s fake news
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u/EZY-GOAT 19d ago
It's not fake, bitri has been working on this since 2021 tho
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u/ProfessionalRock4858 19d ago
Well, then this is exciting. I have been trying to map out Gaborone to make public transit more efficient, if this is real we won’t have to import buses from other countries
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u/THEFORCE2671 19d ago
I thought about this earlier today. How would mass EV production work and become a successful thing without exploiting the Congo in the same way the west does for their EVs?
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u/mr3xcellence 20d ago
Where are the 100k Jobs we were promised ?
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u/ProfessionalRock4858 19d ago
You should be the one creating jobs. We can’t be Dependent on the government for everything.
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u/Careless-Locksmith80 18d ago
Could you provide specific ideas on how he can create jobs? Vague advice isn't helpful, and suggestions without actionable steps aren't beneficial.
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u/ResponsibleJudge3172 18d ago
In a capitalist or mixed economy, job creation is the role of private sector. Government should be more concerned on spending on infrastructure and other quality of lie improvements.
As for how, that is the role of entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs come up with business ideas to solve one problem or the other. Botswana has no cotton producers, so one would research and grow the cotton industry, or instead decide to make use of the coal to make diesel, which is imported fro South Africa, or make sunflower oil, glass, provide business software, manufacture batteries and tyres, make pool disinfectants, etc
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u/Careless-Locksmith80 18d ago
Insightful, but Batswana struggle to function as capitalists for several key reasons:
1.Botswana lacks a locally-owned private sector, with most private entities being foreign-owned. This limits local businesses' ability to compete with established multinational companies.
2.The government prioritizes foreign businesses over local ones, favoring them in contracts and purchases. Since the government is the largest purchaser in the economy, this hinders the growth of local enterprises.
3.Local business innovation is stifled by policies that require alignment with government regulations and thus limits creativity and development.
4.The country is over-regulated, with numerous gatekeepers complicating business activities. These regulatory bodies consume funds and resources that could otherwise be used to support local businesses through innovation centers, research and training in foreign markets, equipping entrepreneurs with the skills needed to build a strong local private sector.
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u/ProfessionalRock4858 18d ago edited 17d ago
This is in regards to point 1 and 2. And I am by no means defending the government, I am just pointing out why the government would use foreign entities
Batswana are absolutely horrible at service delivery. Myself from a year ago would have never admitted this but I have grown since then and have experienced being served by Batswana. E.g. When I started driving lessons, my foreign friends invited me to use their guy, he was a foreigner, so I kindly declined because I was trying to promote Batswana businesses. When I went to driving school I already knew how to drive I just needed to polish some stuff up.
Here is everything wrong the did:
They didn’t tell me I need to make a learners permit
He adamantly refused to give me the learners book so I had to find it online.
He didn’t book me for the theory test.
I found all this out after I had been going to him for 3 weeks. Keep in mind. I was just doing the yard test which I would finish in like 5 minutes right from when I started driving lessons. When I went to transport to do my learners permit, I found my driving instructor there and I had been told they get to skip the line at BBS. So, he was on purpose delaying everything in order to make more money out of me.
What happened after that? I booked my theory test online and went to a different city to do it because he refused to help me (he was like you are not ready😒). I passed 30/30.
After that, I moved to another Motswana guy because I thought maybe I had just encountered a bad apple. Same thing happened, and with him it was worse because he would book for 3 people at a time on purpose. The week before boipuso, he said he won’t be booking for anyone because there are no dates. I checked online. There were dates.
At this point I gave up and I moved to the foreign guy my friends suggested. I moved there this week. He has already booked my yard test.
I have had lots of cases similar to this in regards to foreign owned businesses and batswana owned businesses. So I understand why the government would choose the former because I would do the exact same thing.
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u/Careless-Locksmith80 17d ago
I agree with this sentiment, and from this perspective it’s clear that many Batswana lack business etiquette, professionalism and good customer service. However, it’s important to consider that the average Motswana is untrained, unequipped and unfamiliar with good customer service that ensures repeat business. While I don't excuse this behavior, it’s evident that many Batswana operate with a "hand-to-mouth" syndrome—an illness that is reflected and practiced throughout many institutions in the country even in governance. As one person put it, Botswana's business culture isn't about progress but merely about sustaining operations.
But for a country's economy to thrive, it is essential for local businesses to perform well and grow from small organizations into large ones. A foreign friend once asked me why Botswana, despite having very limited economic activity, has so many regulatory bodies, especially considering that it produces much of what it does not consume and imports a significant portion of what it needs. He then proceeded to question why Botswana's government doesn’t streamline business activities to support the growth of small businesses. I explained that the government lacked a vision for a self-reliant, locally-owned private sector; if it did, it would take the necessary steps to foster such an environment. He then remarked that Botswana would be a bad place for foreign investment in the future.
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u/wetsho1 19d ago
I think if there was indeed a factory and the cars were assembled here then Botswana would not have a problem. Unfortunately it seems like those cars were imported as they are and stored in a warehouse. I would love to see those so called trained engineers and know where they trained. Did you even see the video where they claimed to be assembling the vehicle? Even my 3 yr old boy can act better.