JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Increased innovation and technological readiness is needed to move Botswana out of its current transitional phase into becoming an “efficiency-driven State”, Botswana Innovation Hub (BIH) technology director Dr Budzanani Tacheba said on Thursday.

Speaking at a conference in Midrand, he pointed out that, according to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF’s) Global Competitiveness Report for 2013/14, Botswana was still in the transitional phase, as it had been for the past four or five years.

Tacheba added that while this did not come as a surprise, the BIH believed that if the WEF’s pillars of innovation and technological readiness were addressed, the country could move forward.

“With regard to these two pillars, we feel that, as an organisation the country looks upon us to create better impacts for the society at large. And we believe that if we [focus] our efforts on those, it could help us progress to the next stage, which is the so-called ‘efficiency-driven State’,” he said.

He further stated that mining had been identified by the BIH as being one of the sectors that would be most relevant to the Botswana economy in future, adding innovation would drive the depth of impact the mining sector had on the economy.

“Mining is a key industry in Botswana with a significant contribution to the gross domestic product. However, owing to decreasing efficiency levels and rising costs, it is necessary to [improve the efficiency of] mining processes using innovative technologies,” Tacheba said.

The BIT aimed to do this by attracting innovative mining companies and key components in the mining technology supply chain, facilitating mining-related research and developing and attracting laboratory and critical support services to Botswana.

Tacheba noted that the positive impact of research and development had been seen in many mining destinations; however, Botswana was currently mostly making use of international data and, therefore, there was a need for Africa-specific research to ensure that all the country’s resources reached their full potential.