Speech by President S R Nathan at the State Lunch hosted in honour of His Excellency Festus Mogae, President of the Republic of Botswana

Your Excellency President Festus Mogae
Mrs Barbara Mogae
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen

     On behalf of the people of Singapore, it is with great pleasure today that I warmly welcome His Excellency Festus Mogae, President of the Republic of Botswana, Mrs Barbara Mogae and the esteemed members of your delegation to Singapore.

     Our then Prime Minister, Mr Goh Chok Tong, who is now Senior Minister in the Cabinet, visited Botswana in 1997 and left greatly impressed by your beautiful country.  Botswana is one of Africa’s most peaceful, stable and successful countries.  Despite having abundant natural resources, including being the world’s largest producer of diamonds, the Botswana Government has not been contented to just rely on this bounty.  Instead, the country’s economic growth has been driven by sound economic policies and good governance.  The weight of Botswana’s achievements can only be understood if one travels back in history.  At the onset of independence forty years ago, Botswana was one of the poorest countries in Africa.  An economist back then called it “a place that wasn’t suitable for anything, except famine”.  In 2002, in his fine book ‘The Shackled Continent”, Robert Guest, the former African editor of The Economist sums up the state of Africa in these very telling words: “For Africa to thrive, it needs more and bigger Botswanas”.  Indeed, Botswana has made a remarkable turnaround and proved its critics wrong in just forty years.

     Though Singapore and Botswana are separated by thousands of kilometres, our experiences on the road to development have many marked similarities.  Like Botswana, Singapore is a very small country surrounded by larger neighbours.  As small states, we are price-takers, not price-setters.  Our ability to influence the larger affairs of the world is limited.  But being small does not mean that we cannot be successful.  The Governments of both Singapore and Botswana have invested heavily in developing their human resources and placed much emphasis on governance.  This common outlook has formed the basis for our cooperation in a surprising number of areas.

     In 1993, at the request of the Botswana Government, Singapore assisted in setting up the Botswana National Productivity Centre.  I am happy to learn that this centre has become a regional training centre on productivity   matters in Southern Africa.  It remains an important flagship project and a major success story of Singapore-Botswana cooperation and our own Singapore Cooperation Programme.  To date, 348 Botswana officials have participated under this programme in courses in a wide range of fields such as civil aviation, environmental management, broadcasting, IT, trade and commerce, and telecommunications.  We warmly welcome Botswana’s continued participation in our SCP.

     Our bilateral engagement remains strong to this day.  From 1991 to 2000, our Singapore International Foundation has sent a total of 15 volunteers to Botswana to teach in areas like mathematics, science, IT, business and marketing.  Some of these volunteers are here with us today.  In 2005, the Government of Botswana invited a Singapore team to facilitate its High- Level Strategic Retreat, which was attended by Your Excellency and your Cabinet Ministers, as well as other senior officials.

      Less than two weeks ago, Singapore and Botswana again cooperated when we sent a needs assessment team to Botswana comprising senior officials from the Singapore Cooperation Enterprise and the Civil Service College to assist with the transformation of the Botswana Institute of Administration and Commerce into a full-fledged Civil Service College.

     Singapore remains committed to supporting Botswana’s efforts in such human resource development endeavours.  We look forward to building on our relations with Botswana and to expanding our ties in the economic as well as other spheres.

Excellencies
Ladies and Gentlemen

     I invite you now to rise and join me in a toast to the good health and success of President and Mrs Mogae, to the peace and prosperity of the people of Botswana, and to closer relations between the Republic of Botswana and Singapore.