statement

This paper considers the performance of the Textile and Clothing (TC) sector in Botswana and
reviews various national and international incentive schemes aimed at developing TC exports.
The analysis shows that domestic policies and preferential trade regimes helped establish the
sector and still play a central role in its continued operation. However, the sector has failed to
take advantage of existing trade preferences and thus the situation worsened, between 2008
and 2010 due to the global economic crisis and phasing out of export incentive schemes,
respectively. It is therefore fundamental that appropriate policies and interventions are put in
place to secure the sector’s growth, development and competitiveness. Once government has
determined that the sector is commercially viable in the long term, the short term measures
that have been put in place between 2010-11 need to be replaced with measures that address
the long term profitability of the sector.

Botswana Journal of Economics; (2014) Vol 12, No 1 (2014)