1. English 26
ALANBAA
Sunday, 3 November, 2013
Botswana: Building on stability
and prosperity
H E Manyupedza P Lesetedi
Staff Report
A career diplomat with
more than 32 years of experience H E Manyupedza P Lesetedi, the Ambassador of Botswana to
Kuwait comes across as a
man of immense knowledge and wisdom in the
world of diplomacy.
Having joined the ministry of foreign affairs in
Botswana in 1981 soon
after graduation, Ambassador Lesetedi has served
in many capacities and
countries during his tenure as a diplomat. His
very first posting was in
New York in the United
Nations mission and after
his three year stint moved
on to Belgium, followed
by Zimbabwe. Ambassador Lesetedi was also
involved in the committee of the peacekeeping
operations in Mozambique and returned to the
United Nations for another brief 2 year term.
He was then posted to
China, followed by Ethiopia and then served as
director for multilateral
affairs back in Botswana before getting his first
posting as ambassador
to Ethiopia in 2008. In
2010 Ambassador Lesetedi was accredited as
the first non-resident Botswana ambassador to
Kuwait and later in 2011
became the first resident
ambassador to Kuwait.
“Our relations with
Kuwait are very, very
good,” he emphasizes,
pointing that relations
with Kuwait began soon
after Botswana got their
independence in 1966.
“We share a similar history like Kuwait as we
too were British protectorates and not colonies,”
he points out.
Ambassador Lesetedi
stresses on the important
contribution that Kuwait
Fund for Arab Economic
Development (KFAED)
has made to his country since independence.
“They have been very
generous and funded so
many economic projects
from infrastructure to airports and bridges and
this signifies the excel-
lent relationship between
the two nations.”
KFAED’s role has been
appreciated and welcomed
by Ambassador Lesetedi, they have been true
friends in the time of need
and many projects have
been successfully com-
pleted he points out. The
total investments are in
excess of tens of millions of dollars.
“We are in the process
of concluding many sector specific agreements,
from air services to avoidance of double taxation,”
he stated and indicated
that he was also keen to
have an agreement in the
area of education so that
student exchanges could
take place.
It is evident that Ambassador Lesetedi is exerting a great amount of
effort and goodwill to
take the relationship forward. Leaving no stone
unturned he says “We are
also exploring an investment protection agreement and a visa agreement
for diplomatic passport
holders.”
However ambassador
Lesetedi feels there is
plenty of room for advancing this relationship
and is keen to see some
high level exchanges during his tenure here. “I
would really like to see
our leadership visit Kuwait and vice-versa,” he
pointed out.
Ambassador Lesetedi
feels that there needs to
be more people to people
contact as this is something he says is lacking.
“Many Kuwaitis are not
fully aware of Botswana, its location and also
the great tourism and investment potential, as
an embassy we need to
market ourselves and
bring awareness locally,” he says.
Botswana gets almost
a million tourists annually, particularly from USA
and Europe and Africa
while from the Gulf region it is only marginal,
hence Ambassador feels
the stake holders such as
tourist operators and hotels should get involved
in promoting Botswana.
Botswana has some
amazing Safaris and
incredible beauty and
the government is very
concerned about conservation. Hunting will
not be permitted from
2014 hence beauty of
the wilderness will be
maintained.
Commenting on the
investment potential,
he says there is a huge
potential that is lacking
the exposure and he is
working very closely
with the Botswana Investment Trade Centre
to promote investment
particularly from the private sector.
Elaborating on some
of the areas where the potential is great he points
at glass manufacturing,
“We have known reserves
of 230 million tonnes
of silicon, and also we
export around 280,000
tonnes of soda ash per
annum,”
Botswana is looking
to diversify its economy
and is heavily dependent
on mining and beef exports. It has been one
of the largest diamond
producers in the world.
“Botswana can provide
great access to African
markets as it is a member of South African Development Community
(SADC) and also has a
cooperation agreement
with European Union
and under this agree-
ment exports to EU are
duty free,” Ambassador
Lesetedi points out.
“Kuwait is a very nice
place with a lot of diplomatic activity,” he says.
Concurrently accredited
to Qatar, Ambassador Lesetedi is constantly on
the move to promote Botswana and build bridges of friendship with the
entire region.
Botswana is a landlocked country situated in
southern Africa. It borders
South Africa, Namibia,
Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Approximately two-thirds
of the country lies within
the Tropics. Botswana is a
nation of stunning beauty
and vastness that has untapped potential of natural
resources and is known
to have the best wilderness and wildlife areas
on the African Continent.
More than 38 percent of
the total land mass is devoted to national parks,
reserves and wildlife management areas.
As a nation it is one
of Africa’s most stable
countries and has the continent’s longest continuous multi-party democracy
and is also relatively free
of corruption and has a
good human rights record.
(in association with
“The Times, Kuwait”)
Press Release
EY : a platinum sponsor for
the “E-Government Forum
KUWAIT 31 OCTOBER
2013: EY announces that it
will be a platinum sponsor
for the “E-Government Forum: Recent Trends, Security Risks, and Implementation Challenges” which will be
held from 11-13 November in
Kuwait. The Forum will host
business professionals from
international companies and
government officials.
Held under the patronage
of his highness Sheikh Jaber
Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah
the Prime Minister of the State
of Kuwait, the Forum will be
managed by the Central Agency for Information Technology
(CAIT) that is mandated with
developing the e-government
program in Kuwait.
Raoul Savastano, Partner,
Advisory, EY Kuwait along
with Christoph Capellaro Director, Advisory EY Kuwait
will speak about Business continuity at the Forum. Ken Allen, Advisory, EY UK will
unveil EY’s Global Information Security Survey results.
Senior executives from EY
Kuwait will also contribute
to the discussion on ‘E-government security challenges
and Information & Communications Security solutions
and trends.’
Commenting on EY’s spon-
sorship Waleed Al-Osaimi said:
“We are very proud to be a part
of this Forum. Our sponsorship
demonstrates our committed
support to help develop and
progress national information
and communication security
in Kuwait. It is crucial to continually enhance operating and
security systems and our expertise in this field will help
to contribute to the progression of Kuwait’s communi-
cation systems.”
The Forum comes at a time
where CAIT launched the second phase of the Kuwait government online (KGO) project.
KGO represents the official
portal of the State of Kuwait
and this new phase is aimed
at the development of integrated e-services which set
Kuwait at par with advanced
countries in the e-government
readiness index.
Mr. Waleed Al-Osaimi
Cyberspace
Responses to U.S. spying could change
structure of the Internet
UPI -- Proposals by
Brazil, Germany and
India to create separate networks to block
U.S. spying could cause
a breakup of the Internet, experts warn.
NSA spying, as revealed by former National Security Agency contractor Edward
Snowden, has a number of countries scrambling to protect private
or commercially sensitive emails and phone
records from U.S. and
British security services, experts and academics said.
Such moves to encourage regional online traf-
fic to be routed locally
rather than through the
United States are likely to be the first steps
in a fundamental shift
in the way the Internet
works, with the possibility of hindering economic growth, they said.
Following reports on
the scale of U.S. surveillance, Brazil’s government has announced
plans to promote its own
networking technology,
encourage regional internet traffic to be routed locally and set up a
secure national email
service.
“States may have few
other options than to fol-
low in Brazil’s path,” Ian
Brown from the Oxford
Internet Institute told The
Guardian. “This would
be expensive, and likely
to reduce the rapid rate
of innovation that has
driven the development
of the Internet to date
... But if states cannot
trust that their citizens’
personal data -- as well
as sensitive commercial
and government information -- will not otherwise be swept up in
giant surveillance operations, this may be a
price they are willing
to pay.”
Revelations of U.S.
spying were pushing the
Internet toward a tipping
point that could hugely
affect how online communications work, one
analyst said.
“We are certainly getting pushed towards this
cliff and it is a cliff we
do not want to go over
because if we go over
it, I don’t see how we
stop,” said Daniel Castro, a senior analyst at
the Information Technology & Innovation
Foundation in Washington. “It is like a run
on the bank -- the system we have now works
unless everyone decides
it doesn’t work, then the
whole thing collapses.”