Botswana is known to the world more for the rich resources embedded in its earth. Often what makes news in this poor African country is the high quality diamonds being mined out, which are unique by its size and carat strength. A recent example is the mining of a 1758- carat diamond mined out from the depths of its rocks, which engaged world attention and it was auctioned out for a fabulous amount, the proceeds of which would be enough to fund many projects and schemes in the resource scarce country. Beef export also complements its revenue stream. But the bad news is that its tryst with diamonds will run out in 10-15 years. Beef exports may not be sustainable one in the long run because of the newer concepts like beyond meat, a concept being innovated by scientists to grow meat of the required protein content in the plant. That forces the country to look for alternative sources of income to launch newer schemes and projects. Development of knowledge economy is of paramount importance in the new scheme of things. Many institutions have sprung up in the country to train people in various avocations and segments to groom up a highly professionalized group of people. Importantly, most of these organizations have come up in the private sector. Will Botswana build a strong genre of knowledge workers? Experts opine that it would largely depends on the interests taken by the government matched up by the funds committed both by the public and private sector. Can a poor country like Botswana afford to invest huge resources in manpower training? This is where multilateral organizations like African Union, World Bank etc should chip in. Institutions, which can take up training in cutting edge technologies, should be allowed to invest in the country with an undertaking that they should provide not only training but also create an ecosystem in their own organizations or elsewhere to absorb at least a good percentage of students trained. That will serve two purposes; one in skilling the youngsters and two in creating a good number of entrepreneurs, who in turn will create4 employment and business opportunities for several thusand people over a period of time.
