OECD Investment Policy Reviews: Botswana 2014
OECD's comprehensive review of investment policy in Botswana. After an overview of the country, the review examines investment policy, investment promotion and facilitation as well as infrastructure in Botswana.
Investment policy in Botswana
This chapter charts how much progress Botswana has made in improving its investment climate, especially since the mid-1990s. Business establishment could be further facilitated through simplification of procedures of land allocation and property registration. Foreign ownership is also restricted in several economic sectors, limiting the overall openness of the investment regime; the fact that these restrictions are not listed within a common “negative list” may moreover reduce transparency for investors. Nonetheless investors in Botswana today benefit from protection from expropriation, sound contract enforcement, and guarantees for intellectual property rights, among others. Botswana’s legal framework for investment is therefore quite comprehensive and provides investor protection provisions which meet international standards. While Botswana’s Doing Business rankings have declined since 2009, this chapter suggests that this performance is not necessarily a reflection of poor quality of the legal regime. Rather, improvement may be particularly necessary as concerns the transparency and clarity of the legal framework vis-à-vis investors.