Botswana

Botswana

Politicalaspects

Independence in 1966 from the UK

Source : https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bc.html

Source : http://www.xprt-consulting.com/xing/Doingbusiness2009.pdf

3 reforms in 2007-2008

Economicaspects

Gold

Coal

Diamonds1/3 of GDP

90% of export earnings

Manganese

Uranium

Oil

Copper

Naturalresources

Source : https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gh.html

Debswana

� Leading producer of diamonds by value in the world. � Controls all diamond mining in Botswana. � Joint venture betweeen De Beers and the government.� Combined production of the company's 4 mines

totaled 30 million carats (6,000 kg), nearly 25% of theworld's annual production of around 130 million carats(26,000 kg).

� The operations of De Beers account for around 1/3 of Botwana’s GDP.

Sources : http://www.afdiamonds.com/wad/view/wad/en/page499

Source : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=153F3dE3X5Q

Percentage of enterprises owned by women

Source : http://www.weforum.org/pdf/gcr/africa/1.4.pdf

World’s 4th most unequal country

Sourcehttps://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2172rank.html?countryName=Botswana&countryCode=bc&regionCode=af&rank=4#bc

Source : http://www.transparency.org/news_room/in_focus/2008/cpi2008#dnld

Lowest corruption in Africa

Botswana

Botswana is rated as the country with the lowestcorruption in Africa (22nd out of 134 countries). Over past years, the transparency and accountability of public institutions have contributed to a stable macroeconomicenvironment, and this is one key area of improvement.

The government has been running a healthy budget surplus, which is allowing it to reduce debt levels, and inflation has come down from its peak in 2006 as well.

Source : http://www.weforum.org/documents/GCR0809/index.html, page 34.

Culture and health aspects

Setswana 80%English 2%

Languages

62 yearsLife expectancy

11,000 people died of AIDS in 200724% of the population live with HIV / AIDS

HIV / AIDS

2 million peoplePopulation

Sourceshttps://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bc.htmlhttps://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2157rank.html?countryName=Botswana&countryCode=bc&regionCode=af&rank=28#bchttps://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2155rank.html?countryName=Botswana&countryCode=bc&regionCode=af&rank=2#bc

% of population in Africa with HIV / AIDS

Sourceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Africa_HIV-AIDS.svghttps://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2155rank.html?countryName=Botswana&countryCode=bc&regionCode=af&rank=2#bc

Botswana

By far the biggest obstacle facing Botswana in itsefforts to improve its competitiveness is the healthsituation in the country. Botswana has the highestHIV prevalence rate of all countries covered , as well as very high malaria (111th)‏ and tuberculosis(128th) incidence.

However, these rates are for the most part comingdown, leading to an improvement in life expectancyfrom 40 to 52 years by the most recent estimate. priorities for the government for some time.


Continuing to improve the health and educationallevels of the workforce will remain the main prioritiesfor the government for some time.


Botswana’s primary weaknesses are related to the country’s human resources base. Despite highspending on education, educational attainment rates at all levels of the educational ladder remain low by international standards, and the quality of the educational system receives mediocre marks .


Geograhicalaspects

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botswana

Country size

581,730 km 2

14 times larger than Switzerland

Source : https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bc.html

Source : http://images.encarta.msn.com/xrefmedia/aencmed/targets/maps/map/T028797A.gif

The Kalahari Desert covers 70% of Botswana

The Kalahari Desert

Source : http://blog.beliefnet.com/pontifications/imgs/Kalahari%20Desert.jpg

Economy & Finance

Botswana