Category Archives: Resource Based Economy

Harry is a passionate environmentalist and has often spoken out about the dangers posed by climate change. While on a trip to Botswana last year, the Duke of Sussex described planet Earth as being in a state of emergency and encouraged people to join the fight. In an impassioned speech, he told an audience: We are losing the race against climate change. Everyone knows it. Theres no excuse for not knowing that.

The most troubling part of it is that I dont believe that theres anybody in this world that can deny science undeniable science and facts science and facts that have been around for the last 30, maybe 40, years and its only getting stronger and stronger.

Aaron Wudrick from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) has cautioned Harry that he faces being given a chilly reception in Canada if he goes on the offensive with his global warming campaigning.

Mr Wudrick pointed out that almost half the country and western Canada in particular, where Harry and Meghan have made their new home, relied on the oil and gas industry for an income.

The CTF director, whose organisation has launched a campaign against the federal carbon tax, told Express.co.uk: We believe in climate change, but we do not support the tool they are using to fight it.

On that issue generally I think that if Harry wants to engage in political campaigns, he will need to be very sensitive to the political realities in Canada.

He will not find a very warm welcome in many parts of this country if he is aggressively in support of things like carbon taxes.

He will get a very chilly reception in many parts of Canada if he does.

He explained: So much of western Canada is a very natural resource based economy.

JUST IN:Meghan Markle and Prince Harry MUST have their security paid for by UK

On Thursday Mr Trudeaus Government finally admitted defeat and confirmed it would no longer fund the Duke and Duchess of Sussexs security bills.

Public Safety Canada, the body responsible for the royal couples security, said: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex choosing to relocate to Canada on a part-time basis presented our government with a unique and unprecedented set of circumstances.

The RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) has been engaged with officials in the UK from the very beginning regarding security considerations.

"As the Duke and Duchess are currently recognised as Internationally Protected Persons, Canada has an obligation to provide security assistance on an as-needed basis.

At the request of the Metropolitan Police, the RCMP has been providing assistance to the Met since the arrival of the Duke and Duchess to Canada intermittently since November 2019.

The assistance will cease in the coming weeks, in keeping with their change in status."

Read more here:

Prince Harry warned against ALIENATING Canadians with climate change campaign - Express

Good morning! Its James Keller in Calgary.

Albertas United Conservative Party government delivered a budget this week that defied expectations and painted a relatively optimistic picture for the province in the coming years.

There were plenty of signs before the budget that the provinces fortunes had taken a turn. Oil prices have been on a steady downward slide and several banks and outside analysts had downgraded their projections for the provinces economic growth. Unemployment has been hovering above 7 per cent around where its been for two stubborn years.

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That led to fears that there would be even deeper cuts than what the government proposed four months ago in its 2019 budget, which introduced steep cuts in some areas, spending freezes in others, and widespread cuts to the public service.

But Finance Minister Travis Toews instead tabled a budget that largely stuck to last years plan. Health and education budgets remain flat (which critics have said is the same as a cut) and while there are cuts sprinkled throughout the budget, things dont look that different from October.

How did the government do that? Largely by betting on oil. The budget predicts a substantial recovery in the oil and gas sector in the next three years, with resource royalties almost returning to where they were before the recession. It predicts strong economic growth and unemployment shrinking to 5.1 per cent.

Getting there will be no small feat. The price of the West Texas Intermediate oil benchmark currently sits around US$45 a barrel. Oil prices have been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak and there remains global uncertainty about how long those effects will last.

A drop in the price of WTI of just US$1 cuts $355-million from provincial revenues.

The government is also projecting that its corporate tax cut which will slash the rate from 12 per cent under the previous government to 8 per cent when the cuts are fully implemented will breathe more life into the economy and, in turn, boost tax revenues.

The GDP growth projections are higher than some private-sector forecasts, and the unemployment rate targets are beyond what both the Conference Board of Canada and Stokes Economics have predicted.

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University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe says he was shocked by the budgets assumptions, particularly when it comes to oil prices, which are difficult to predict and can fluctuate wildly. He notes that the government didnt update its economic projections since the last budget in October and in some cases, such as unemployment, the new numbers are more optimistic.

Weve been seeing a gradual deterioration of Albertas economic conditions and the expectations for growth by many forecasters," he said, noting that there is increasing economic uncertainty around the world.

It was stunning. I cant imagine what the explanation is.

Kelly Cryderman writes that Albertas dependence on oil makes it particularly vulnerable to other factors, such as the economic fallout from the coronavirus: "What might have been viewed as a reasonable forecast from the Alberta government just a few weeks ago now feels optimistic. "

Gary Mason says the latest fiscal plan lays bare the quagmire that Alberta finds itself in: Naturally, this all assumes that projections for the price of oil over that period remain viable. (Insert laugh line here.) The province has ridden the oil and gas roller coaster for so long now it doesnt know how to get off.

This is the weekly Western Canada newsletter written by B.C. Editor Wendy Cox and Alberta Bureau Chief James Keller. If youre reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here. This is a new project and well be experimenting as we go, so let us know what you think.

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Around the West

WETSUWETEN TALKS: Talks among senior government officials and Wetsuweten Nation hereditary chiefs aimed at resolving a B.C. pipeline dispute resumed on Friday, with officials striking an optimistic tone amid some signs of rail traffic getting back to normal. The talks, which began on Thursday, followed weeks of disruption that began after police on Feb. 6 started enforcing a court injunction on a B.C. logging road to clear the way to Coastal GasLink work sites.

LONE WOLF: The last time Cheryl Alexander saw the wolf Takaya, his limp body was being carried away from a backyard in Victorias high-density neighbourhood of James Bay. His life, just on the edge of the urban environment, offered a rare glimpse into something wild. But our coexistence with these apex predators is uneasy and complex. The end of his story is unknown.

MINING SUIT: The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that Vancouver-based mining company Nevsun Resources Ltd. can be sued in Canada for alleged human-rights abuses abroad, a decision that is being welcomed by rights activists but broadens the potential legal liability for many Canadian corporations. About four years ago, the Eritreans launched a suit against Vancouver-based zinc and copper miner Nevsun in the lower B.C. court. The plaintiffs alleged that they were subject to forced labour, slavery and torture during the construction of Nevsuns Bisha mine in the east African country of Eritrea. The allegations have not been proved in court.

GRETA STICKER: RCMP in central Alberta say a decal that appears to show a well-known teenage climate activist in a sexual act is not child pornography. The decal bears the logo of X-Site Energy Services below a cartoon figure seeming to depict 17-year-old Greta Thunberg of Sweden. The companys general manager, Doug Sparrow, has denied having anything to do with the stickers.

MEDICARE TRIAL: A marathon legal battle that could ultimately change the future of Canadas health-care system concluded in Vancouver on Friday, more than a decade after it began. B.C. Supreme Court Justice John Steeves is now left to decide whether British Columbians should be able to pay for faster access to necessary medical care, a move that opponents say threatens medicares central organizing principle that health-care access should be prioritized based on need and not the ability to pay.

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SURREY POLICE: The British Columbia government has given Surrey permission to create a police board and take a number of other steps as it works to create a municipal force to replace the RCMP.

VIRUS IMPACT: Most of Calgarys city councillors had lunch at a restaurant in Chinatown this week to try to help reduce fears about the new coronavirus. Businesses in Chinatowns across Canada have reported a drop in activity since COVID-19 hit China in January and started to spread around the world. At Ho Wan Restaurant in Calgary, the owners son, Jason Zhang, says business is down about 70 per cent.

ALBERTA PARKS: The Alberta government wants to hand off management of 164 provincially run parks to outside groups. Modernizing Albertas parks system is long overdue, Jess Sinclair, spokeswoman for Environment Minister Jason Nixon, said Friday.

VANCOUVER NIGHTCLUBS: When the Caprice Nightclub closed on Granville Street two years ago and was replaced by the Colony, a multilevel bar with table tennis and arcade games, that marked a shift in Vancouvers downtown to a different generation. The downtowns new residents and visitors prefer lower-key bars to clubs. They are lining up for lunches at new quick-service restaurants such as Tractor, SMAK and Field & Social, rather than sitting down for something more elaborate. They love artisanal coffee bars such as Quantum or Matchstick. They really, really love Japanese food. Thats the picture of Vancouvers downtown revealed in a new study released Thursday, part of an effort by the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association to understand how its territory is changing.

PROPOSED PROJECT: A judge has issued a stay of a court order that required the Alberta government to make an immediate decision on a proposed oil sands project near Fort McMurray. Prosper Petroleum Ltd. has been waiting 19 months for the province to decide on its Rigel project, while similar projects have been approved in a third of the time.

TECK FRONTIER: Natural Resources Minister Seamus ORegan is on a hastily scheduled tour through Alberta as he tries to contain the backlash from the cancellation of the proposed Frontier oil sands mine. As his colleague Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson continues to distance the Liberals from the cancelled project, Mr. ORegan is making a full-court press in the Prairie province to allay concerns and affirm his governments commitment to the oil patch.

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Opinion:

Shiri Pasternak and Irina Ceric on the injunctions involved in the Coastal GasLink dispute: It is now increasingly clear that the injunction is a legal tool of political expediency. It has an almost arbitrary authority to empower law enforcement to contain and criminalize people by securing vague geographical boundaries and broad powers of removal, often indefinitely. In the hands of industry and governments alike, the injunction, still billed as an extraordinary legal remedy, has emerged as the all-too-ordinary response to Indigenous assertions of jurisdiction and solidarity.

Pam Palmater on Canadas history of depriving Indigenous groups of land and resources: The real issue has always been about the land. The way forward is recognition of our right to be self-determining over our own lands and resources. Anything less is just the same old Indian policy that invites more uncertainty and social conflict. Canada can do better. Its time to move past genocide and work toward respect for Indigenous land rights.

Globe Editorial on school shortages in downtown Vancouver: All fast-growing areas experience some strains. Yet governments consistently manage to plan and build roads, sewers and power for new communities, before people move in. There are no signs warning prospective condo buyers that, caveat emptor, your new home wont be getting electricity, running water or flush toilets until the 2030s. In contrast, schools in some growing urban neighbourhoods are being treated as a non-essential service.

Adrienne Tanner on why Vancouver school building hasnt kept pace with condo building: "The provincial government points out that the Olympic Village school is now the VSBs top capital priority. But the school might have been built quicker if the VSB had considered a money-saving proposal put forward by the province. The province proposed closing Queen Elizabeth Annex as a public facility and leasing the space to a French school in search of a home. That plan would have freed up money for capital projects such as the school at Olympic Village. The VSB rejected the idea, ergo the Olympic Village school remains a patch of dirt.

Andrew Leach on Teck Frontier: But now, Frontier will not move ahead. And there may not be another mine project on the horizon to force the provinces hand. If thats the case, we may yet come to rue the day Mr. Lindsay signed that letter, killing a symbol that housed so much potential, for better or worse.

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Western Canada: Alberta budget bets on oil to bring province out of economic slump - The Globe and Mail

This is an excerpt from "The Circular Economy Handbook: Realizing the Circular Advantage" by Peter Lacy, Jessica Long and Wesley Spindler. It is reprinted here with permission from Accenture Strategy.

The types and volume of industry-level circular activity vary widely. In general, consumer-facing industries have seen the largest volumes of circular activity, often driven by demands from consumers, governments and employees. Specifically, the leading players in fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) have set ambitious circular economy goals, often with a focus on packaging and input waste reduction. The consumer-facing fashion industry has also seen an uptick in action and commitment on the circular economy, from use of alternative materials to product takeback and reuse. For these industries, rising consumer demand and expectations is a clear driver.

According to a 2019 Accenture survey, nearly three-quarters of consumers (72 percent) say they buy more "environmentally friendly products" today than five years ago. Growing public discourse on issues such as plastics and "disposable" fashion is spurring the "call to action" for brands in these sectors. More recently, however, business-to-business (B2B) industries that are less visible to consumers, such as chemical, and metals and mining companies, are starting to see a push from customers (or from the customers of customers). Indeed, a majority of consumers (83 percent) believe it is important for companies to design products that are meant to be reused or recycled, and about half (49 percent) believe that the chemical industry, for example, is the least concerned about the impact it has on the environment compared with eight other sectors.

Business-to-business industries that are less visible to consumers, such as chemical, and metals and mining companies, are starting to see a push from customers (or from the customers of customers).

Other industries feel the pressure of regulatory drivers. In the household appliances sector, for instance, increasing regulations on responsible treatment of products at end of use are pushing companies to focus on greater recovery of used machines. In the United States, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations require technicians who service refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment to follow specific practices to maximize recovery and recycling.

In some cases, circular economy principles naturally align with how industries have long managed their businesses, such as the focus on multi-decade product lifecycles for machinery and industrial equipment (M&IE) and automotive companies. These industries often have strong after-sales maintenance and services baked into their business models. Therefore, the transition to circularity is a natural extension of business-as-usual.

Across industries, a compelling financial case is emerging for the move from linear to circular models of production and consumption. To capture circular value and pivot to new growth areas, most industries adopt a dual focus: applying circular models to their existing value chains, while also incrementally altering the way they do things today. An example is driving efficiencies within operations while experimenting with Product as a Service business models. The typical mix of opportunities across industries includes a change to the product itself (via Circular Inputs, such as renewable materials), its production (the use of fewer resources and reduced resource or material waste), and its consumption (circular models that change the way that customers consume, re-consume or take control of a product at end of use).

The greatest opportunity for creativity and industry crossover occurs ... as each industry tries to figure out what it can and should take back into its value chain versus what it should divert for reuse.

Today, the greatest opportunity for creativity and industry crossover occurs at the intersection of Resource Recovery and Circular Inputs, as each industry tries to figure out what it can and should take back into its value chain versus what it should divert for reuse by others. We are seeing used shoes recycled into sports flooring or car interiors, unwanted plastics transformed into superior road surfaces and wastewater becoming fuel for public fleets. Although the crossover of Circular Inputs is still limited by technical feasibility, inadequate infrastructures and unintended impacts, the potential is huge.

Circular opportunities may also blur industry lines. Many businesses are finding opportunities by enabling circularity for other sectors. Oil and gas companies are getting into the electricity and e-mobility sectors, and chemical companies are embracing their role in textiles and food component innovation. Take, for example, American chemical company Eastman Chemicals circular recycling technology that has the potential to break down polyester-based products into "building blocks" which can, in turn, be used in new products, ultimately helping to solve the textile recycling challenge.

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What's driving the industry shift to circularity? - GreenBiz

Mainstream economic theory suggests that finance serves four main functions for the real economy resource allocation, price discovery, risk management and corporate governance. This universal finance theory or model sounds reasonable and applies to all places and all times, forgetting the context in which money plays a role in the real economy. Just like no country is an island, operating in the global economy, money is not an island it operates within a geopolitical systemic context.

US President Donald Trumps America First policy exposed the myth that the US dollar-denominated global money and financial system is a global public good. If the US dollar serves only the national issuers, then the rest of the world needs to think through what this truly means for global monetary and financial stability.

Mainstream finance theory suggests that money is the life blood of the real economy, helping to provide liquidity, means of payment, store of value, market price discovery and risk management, and reinforcing credit and governance discipline.

These basic functions appear as self-evident truths logical, consistent and convincing. But the 2007 global financial crisis revealed that these four functions can only operate depending on at least five more key interrelated preconditions of stability. Change in any one element would destabilise money and finance. These are: law and institutions, technology, politics, social inequality and climate change.

First, money and finance are legal contracts, subject to protection of the rule of law, including a functioning judiciary that is seen to be transparent, fair and efficient. As Trump has said, the (US) legal system is broken. What is there to stop judgements on contract disputes from being biased if the courts are subject to political interference?

Second, the speed and scale technological change in the 21st century, which was reasonably stable in the 19th century, has disrupted the economy in terms of lifestyle, process, institutions and jobs, threatening those without the knowledge and skills to compete. Financial technology is also disintermediating traditional financial institutions, while giving opportunities for cyber-fraud, insider dealing, market manipulation and predatory action against unsuspecting consumers. The concept of money has been disrupted by cryptocurrency, and cyber attacks can shut down any financial system.

Third, Mao Zedongs dictum that political power stems from the barrel of a gun can be extended to financial power. In a military conflict between the US and China, where would savings flee to the US dollar or RMB? The US dollar is defended not by the size of US foreign exchange reserves (small by global standards), but by the biggest military power in the world. Geopolitical rivalry, including the threat of geopolitical conflict, introduces political instability to exchange rates and, hence, to whole financial systems.

Fourth, political stability itself depends on social stability. Hence, it is no surprise that the rise of populism has been associated with widening income and wealth inequalities. The financialisation of markets has played a role in increasing leverage, lower interest rates, asset bubbles and the concentration of wealth and income in the hands of the few. Financial capitalism has ignored the issue of financial inclusion until almost too late. The poor and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have had difficulty in accessing funding because they lack capital and collateral, whereas the rich and wealthy can borrow, hedge and use leverage and inside information to amass greater wealth and income.

Fifth, climate change was never a major consideration within finance theory. Stability in weather was taken for granted as a normal, but global warming has created major climate change and natural disasters such as floods, droughts, fires, tsunamis, earthquakes and, now, pandemics. These disruptions are not only increasingly changing livelihoods and creating new opportunities, but also causing social dislocations. Human migration arising from climate change and disasters are stressing regions, for instance, Europes challenges in coping with large numbers of refugees and migrants.

In pushing for nationalism and protectionism, Trumps policies are no longer for a level playing field or the global public good, pushing ruthless self-interest (or mercantilism) over global growth or system stability as a whole.

Simply speaking, the conventional four functions of money and finance cannot function well with the five preconditions of institutional stability, technology, politics, inequality and climate change all interacting to change the system radically. We have to look at money and finance as an inter-related, inter-connected, dynamic and non-linear systemic whole. If the hegemon changes the game, money and politics cannot be separated.

Finance does not operate in a silo it is part of a complex, dynamic and interactive systemic whole in which politics trump finance.

This throws hitherto simplistic finance models out of the window, but must take into consideration history, path-dependence, institutions, culture and different governance factors, including religion. For example, Islamic finance is not an aberration from conventional finance because it is fundamentally equity-based financing, with very strict ethics-based or syariah rules. Equity-based financing is about risk-sharing, whereas debt-based financing is about risk-transfer from the lender to the borrower. I have always argued that equity-based finance is much more inclusive and justified than debt-based finance.

From this viewpoint, mainstream money and finance theory are from the hegemons perspective rather than from the rest. The hegemon with the dominant reserve currency is the too-big-to-fail borrower since the rest have to hold that currency because there are few alternatives.

A small country cannot influence the global situation, so its currency is greatly influenced by the dominant players, including speculative players who are very large relative to the domestic players. Since there are no global financial market regulators, erosion of the US financial regulators ability to monitor global financial markets would create opportunities for insider trading, market manipulation and market abuses at the global level and, particularly, in smaller markets without the financial and enforcement powers to stop such abuses.

The idea that financial markets are level playing fields was always a myth. Financial markets have become more concentrated than ever and the regulators powers to check predatory behaviour, including basic rules such as the fiduciary rule (that financial institutions should act in the best interest of their clients) are being eroded.

Reforming finance therefore has been a major pre-occupation since the last financial crisis. Central bankers today are nervously tip-toeing into issues of inequality and climate change, which in the popular mind are exacerbated by quantitative easing. At the same time, cryptocurrencies issued by private issuers are eroding the central bank monopoly franchise to print money.

It is easy to criticise mainstream finance theory, but very tough to find what should replace it. A fashionable replacement is Modern Monetary Theory, which argues that we should not worry about increasing inflation, money supply and fiscal debt, but make sure that the real economy is growing and more inclusive. To conservatives, that sounds like snake oil. To liberals, that is a solution for Nirvana.

The 2020 US presidential elections will unveil which model the American voters like. Either way, with the US fiscal deficit running at over US$1 trillion annually, the world is buying short-term prosperity on the never-never.

Tan Sri Andrew Sheng writes on global issues from an Asian perspective

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Condivergence: Why standard finance theory is incomplete - The Edge Markets MY

By WIN GRUENING

It is our duty as Alaskans to be at the forefront of climate change mitigation strategies and new resource opportunities. Alaska Center Climate Action Plan

Alaskas elected officials share a common goal of solving Alaskas structural revenue-expense imbalance. No more short-term band aids we need long-term solutions.

Despite fossil-fuel naysayers, the oil industry will continue as Alaskas main revenue source (outside of the Permanent Fund) in the near future.Seafood, tourism, and mining will also contribute as significant components of the economy.

But the mining industry, more than any other, has the most potential for growth (and to put our people to work year-round) by providing the world withkey components for electric-vehicle batteries and aid in the advancement of othercriticalgreen technologies.

In 2017, the World Bank released a report, titled The Growing Role of Minerals and Metals in a Low-Carbon Future. The report details how wind turbines, solar panels and batteries are all incredibly reliant on a myriad of minerals.

For more than a century, Alaska has produced a variety of minerals, especially metals produced from hard rock. Today, Alaska only produces gold, silver, lead, and zinc in large quantities.Alaska was the top silver producer in the U.S. in 2017, and zinc and lead were the states top two foreign exports.

According to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), our state has over 7,400 documented prospects.Alaska ranks 5th out of 83 worldwide jurisdictions in overall investment attractiveness by mining and exploration companies and ranks 3rd in mineral potential. (Fraser Institute Annual Survey of Mining Companies, 2018).

In 2018, DNR reported production of almost 16 million ounces of precious metals (gold and silver) and about 825,000 tons of base metals (lead and zinc).This is only a fraction of the estimated reserves potentially available for exploration and development in Alaska.

A report from McDowell Group, an Alaska-based economic consulting firm, says mining employed 9,200 Alaskans directly and indirectly during 2018, and injected $715 million in payroll into the states economy. Mine workers were among the highest-paid with an average annual salary of $102,100. Mining employees live in more than 60 communities throughout Alaska.

Estimated revenues to the State of Alaska from mineral-industry-specific fees, rents, sales, royalties, and taxes amounted to more than $148.6 million in 2018.An additional $34.2 million was paid to municipalities.

Thousands of everyday products require mined metals, including electric vehicles. The minerals extracted from our mines are used in many of the technology tools we use today, from laptops to complex space-age devices.

The rise of green energy technologies required to reduce carbon emissions is expected to lead to significant growth in demand for a wide range of minerals and metals, such as aluminum, copper, lead, lithium, cobalt, manganese, nickel, silver, steel, zinc and rare earth minerals such as neodymium-used in magnets and electric vehicles.

The study points to the fact that most rare earth metals come from China or other areas of unrest, corruption, and human rights abuses such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Alaskas environmental awareness, regulations, and labor practices are clearly superior to most countries where mining occurs.Furthermore, there is real concern America could potentially be held hostage by China and others that have control of rare-earth metals and minerals that are critical to Americas economy and security.

Objections to the expansion of existing mines like Greens Creek or Kensington near Juneau as well so potential mining projects like the Herbert River and Constantine prospects, or the rare-earth Bokan Mountain project in Southeast Alaska, are short-sighted.These projects would stimulate our economy, reduce dependence on foreign mineral sources, and improve global environmental quality.

Mining can and should be one of the cornerstones of true diversification of our natural resources and state and local economies.Gov. Dunleavys formation of the Alaska Development Team to help advance mining projects as well as stimulate other areas of the economy is a welcome start.

If we open our minds to the possibilities, Alaska can be a leader in the effort to supply our nations critical mineral needs.If we dont, others will take advantage and it will be an opportunity lost.

Win Gruening retired as the senior vice president in charge of business banking for Key Bank in 2012. He was born and raised in Juneau and graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1970. He is active in community affairs as a 30-plus year member of Juneau Downtown Rotary Club and has been involved in various local and statewide organizations.

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A mine is a terrible thing to waste - Must Read Alaska

Fingers are pointing in all directions.

On Sunday, Feb. 23 Teck Resources Limited announced a notice of withdrawal of their regulatory application for the Frontier oil sands project from the federal environmental assessment process.

The federal government was expected to grant or reject final approval of the mine by the end of this week. Premier Jason Kenney alleges that the federal cabinet advised Teck that they wouldnt provide a yes or no decision on the application this week, but instead it would be deferred to some point in the future. Trudeaus director of communications denied this allegation and in a statement said a decision hadnt been reached.

Regardless of who said what, and when, Kenney released a statement after the withdrawal that said his government did their part, but the federal governments inability to convey a clear or unified position let Alberta, and Teck, down.

Albertans had high hopes that the project, touted as a socially and environmentally responsible project by the Vancouver-based company, would provide 7,000 jobs and $70 billion dollars in new tax and royalty revenues that could have funded social services in the province for the next four decades. A day before the withdrawal the project received support from 14 First Nations and Mtis organizations in the area about 110 kilometres north of Fort McMurray.

In a statement addressed to Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada, Teck Resources president and CEO Don Lindsay said there is an urgent need to reduce global carbon emissions and support action on climate change. He adds:

Global capital markets are changing rapidly and investors and customers are increasingly looking for jurisdictions to have a framework in place that reconcils resource development and climate change, in order to produce the cleanest possible products.

In fact, throughout the two page letter the company made references to addressing climate change, global carbon emissions, environmental regulations and ethical oil. Images of clear water and greenery also grace the Frontier projects online brochure as if to cloud the reality that this very project would have generated about 4.1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually while producing up to 260,000 barrels of oil per day by 2037.

Last week Wilkinson said Albertas 100-million-tonne cap on oilsands emissions could be exceeded by 2030 if the $20.6-billion project was approved.

Teck Resources based the viability of its Frontier mine on the premise that oil prices would average about $95 per barrel until the 2060s. The current price of oil is less than $60 per barrel and Canadas National Energy Board predicts that $75 is likely a long-term price.

Teck also proposed a project that will cost $20 billion to build, while their entire market capitalization is under $10 billion. This endeavour is especially risky during a time when many investors are undecided on the future of the oil sands. The sector is in a tough position with low oil prices, legal challenges, regulatory uncertainty, opposition, constrained pipeline capacity and Trudeaus governments commitment to lower greenhouse gas emissions and adhere to climate policy.

Ottawa's handling of the rail blockades has also been to blame for Tecks withdrawal.

Its also understandable that Kenney feels hes lost a significant bid for greater control and autonomy for Alberta within Canada. He says factors that led to the withdrawal will further weaken national unity.

Reckoning aside, if Kenney wants to lead our province into economic prosperity he may need to look beyond oil and gas. This projects failure should be seen as a sign that our provinces economy needs to be diversified and action on Kenneys part needs to happen sooner than later.

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Teck withdrawal might be the shakedown Alberta needs - Cochrane Today

Sudan has made a surprise opening to Israel, announced compensation over the bombing of a U.S. warship 20 years ago, and said it will fully cooperate with the International Criminal Court on cases about Darfur.

All are measures that could help rebuild ties with the West after decades of international isolation and help unlock urgently needed financial support for a reeling economy.

Israel's ready for corona - but not for women in powerHaaretz Weekly Ep. 65

But the steps -- all in the past month -- may not be enough.International donors are holding back, demanding more transparency on public and military spending, an economic reform plan, and the lifting of fuel subsidies estimated to cost about $3.5 billion a year.

The risk, say some Sudanese, is that the economy could collapse without sufficient support, in turn fuelling political strife that could endanger prospects for a new era of democracy.

It is unclear when substantial support could materialise.Potential donors from the West and the Gulf have met several times, but they have postponed from April to June a "Friends of Sudan" economic conference where pledges could be made.

The United States has signalled that Sudan could be removed from a list of countries seen as state sponsors of terrorism, but has given no timeframe.

Being on the list complicates efforts to negotiate a deal for Sudan's foreign debt, unblock funding from international lenders and connect Sudan to international banking systems.

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Economic crisis

A government of technocrats, appointed under a power-sharing deal between civilians and the military due to last until late 2022, is lurching through an economic crisis that has only deepened since the overthrow of long-time ruler Omar al-Bashir last April.

"We have economic ideas about how to overcome this. But all these theories depend on some type of help or assistance from the outside world," Information Minister Faisal Salih told Reuters. "We need real, massive assistance."

The finance minister said in November that the government needed up to $5 billion to avert economic collapse. Since then, officials have been struggling to contain worsening fuel and bread shortages linked to a scarcity of dollars and smuggling of subsidized goods, despite some aid from the Gulf.

Inflation running at more than 60% -- one of the highest rates in the world -- has crippled spending power, more than nine million out of a rapidly growing population of 43 million need humanitarian relief and child malnutrition is rising.

Ministers say they have made progress in a peace process aimed at healing long-running internal conflicts, but that economic challenges are bigger than expected, imperilling a transition designed to usher in a new era of democracy.

Though the government still enjoys support on the street, diplomats and analysts say it is overwhelmed and worry that the public could lose patience.

"I don't think there is a strategic awareness that this moment in history is very decisive for Sudan," said Suliman Baldo, a senior policy advisor at the Enough Project, a Washington-based research and advocacy group.

"You either have a transition to civilian rule and democracy, or you will be heading down towards a situation of a failed economy and a failed state."

The government faces internal opposition over economic reforms.

Ministers have retreated from any major steps on subsidies until after an economic conference in late March with the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC), a fractured grouping of political movements that backed the uprising and negotiated the power-sharing deal.

Corruption

That is a problem for donors. "If they don't do something about the fuel subsidies, they're not going to get any money, simple as that," said one Western diplomat. An announcement of a two-tier pricing system at some fuel stations from mid-February was insufficient, he added.

Influential left-wing currents with the FCC say outside aid is not needed, preferring to focus on retrieving funds lost through corruption and trying to reverse the accumulation of wealth by Sudan's security apparatus under Bashir.

Steps have been taken to neutralise Bashir's Islamist networks in ministries and the intelligence services, but the military's high command and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are leading Sudan's top body, the sovereign council, for the first 21 months of the transition, so their interests are harder to challenge.

Investigations are going on into the violent dispersal of a protest last week, and the lethal crackdown on a sit-in in June in which civilian groups said more than 100 people were killed by RSF-led forces -- accusations the RSF has sought to deflect.

The results will be "disruptive" whatever the findings, but top members of the military would have immunity unless it is lifted by the constitutional court or a legislative committee that is yet to be appointed, said Nabil Adib, a 77-year-old lawyer leading the probe.Military factions were using the transitional period to expand their power, said Sadiq Farouk, an FFC leader from the Sudanese Communist Party.

"The financial crisis is not the subsidies, it's the resource allocation within the transitional authority," he said. "More aid will not resolve Sudan's issues."

For this year's budget, officials announced a contribution of $2 billion from the military, but diplomats saw the offer as proof of unaccountable economic power.

General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the charismatic leader of the RSF who has interests in Sudan's gold trade, has been working to polish his image, using a peace process to engage with rebel groups he once fought in the troubled western region of Darfur.

Salih acknowledged "some resistance" to attempts to limit military expenditure and bring economic resources under civilian control, but said there were no alternatives to sharing power. "It's a very difficult partnership but we have to work together," he said.

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Sudan tries to mend ties with the West but stumbles without fresh donors - Haaretz

A third of UK workers have not received any workplace training in the last five years, according to a new City & Guilds report which says there is an urgent need to review adult education.

The Missing Millions report, based on regional labour market data and a poll of 5,000 working age people, has been prepared to explain the current impact of low investment levels in training and to quantify how many peoples contribution is being lost because they cannot access regular skills development.

It calculates that 17.8 million people in the UK have outdated skills.

City & Guilds interim chief executive Kirstie Donnelly has demanded action from the government to reverse the decline of the lifelong learning sector.

She said this should ensure people in all areas have access to critical skills development and employers can access the talent they so desperately need.

The report argues there is an urgent need for a review of adult education and recommends the government reverse cuts to adult education.

It cites Institute for Fiscal Studies research which found spending on apprenticeships and other work-based learning for adults has fallen by around a quarter in real terms since 2009/10.

Fifteen per cent of respondents to City & Guilds survey said they have never received any workplace training while in employment, which the report suggests will make the economy ill-prepared for upcoming challenges from automation and globalisation.

The National Retraining Scheme has the potential to partially address the challenges, the report reads, but to fix them: There needs to be proper funding and resource directed at adult education to meet the upskilling and reskilling needs the UK will have in the decades to come.

We would urge organisations invest in their employees at all levels to ensure the future success of their business

City & Guilds also recommends the government implement the recommendations from the post-18 Augar review, which included entitling all adults to their first level 2 and 3 qualifications for free and providing an indicative adult education budget so FE providers can plan and budget over a three-year period.

The report also proposes employers invest in training and development across the whole of their business, explaining that if their workers do not receive any workplace training, the company risks becoming less competitive.

We would urge organisations to look at all their workforce needs for the next five to ten years and invest in their employees at all levels to ensure the future success of their business, the report reads.

It also recommends employers collaborate with central and local governments on Lifelong Learning Hubs for areas of deprivation and where issues like artificial intelligence and Brexit will have the most impact on the labour market.

The hubs should focus on supporting people displaced by the changing labour market so they can learn new skills for fresh careers and job opportunities.

As the hubs ought to be led by local employer demand, City & Guilds said employers should be involved in shaping the curriculum and content of courses and be allowed to recruit directly from the hubs in what the report calls a win/win for the local community as well as employers.

Continued here:

City & Guilds reports 17.8m UK workers have outdated skills - FE Week

Shahiduzzaman Khan | Published: February 29, 2020 22:13:29

There is ample scope for $10 billion investment in the country's nine projects under public-private partnership (PPP) with government-to-government (G2G) arrangement, according to reports.

The country's PPP Authority has, so far, signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with four countries recently and made some progress with Japan and Singapore to this end.

Potential private investors picked by respective governments are negotiating with the ministries concerned. Some progress has been made in case of six projects with Japanese investors and three projects with Singaporean investors.

According to reports, the projects selected during Bangladesh-Japan joint platform meetings and negotiations are expected to bring an estimated $6.5-billion investment. Another $3.5-billion investment by Singapore in three projects of shipping and housing ministries are expected to materialise.

Two other MoUs have been signed with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and South Korea. The first joint meeting between Bangladesh-South Korea proposed 14 projects in power transmission, railways, real estate development, health, transports and textile.

PPPA officials said the modality of a country's engagement varies and a platform meeting is held when they make a list after reviewing projects sent by different ministries and agencies.

The country's finance minister makes some announcements in every year's budgets on public-private partnership (PPP) initiative. But the worrying fact is that the pace of work is pretty slow in taking up and implementing projects under the initiative.

Analysts see a number of challenges and weaknesses that need to be resolved first. There should be a very strong regulator and good transaction adviser for PPP projects. Governance issue is also very important in the implementation of such projects.

Bangladesh needs to raise investment in public-private partnership (PPP) projects to $12.5 billion a year from $3.5 billion to overcome challenges in the construction of mega infrastructures. The higher per capita income and rapidly growing economic activities are contributing to a substantial increase in the demand for power and transport infrastructures.

Countries like Canada, UK, the Philippines and India have taken a long time to make PPP projects fruitful. Bangladesh, on the other hand, failed to make any headway even after lapse of a long time in this regard.

The growth potential of the Bangladesh economy is, undeniably, constrained by the presence of severe infrastructure bottlenecks arising from a decline in public sector investment in infrastructure over the years and a lack of policy environment conducive to such investments.

Bangladesh has a medium and long term target growth rate of 8.0 per cent a year. However, the country's growth rate has stabilised at an average of 7.0 per cent-plus in recent years mainly due to stagnating domestic investment.

In order to boost economic growth, gross domestic investment should be raised to 34.4 per cent of its GDP very soon, according to experts. Given the country's huge investment gap in infrastructure, a large chunk of such additional investment is a necessity.

Bangladesh thus needs to raise its investment rate closer to the levels attained by India and China in order to achieve a sustained growth rate of 8.0-10 per cent over the next decade. The country not only faces the challenge of mobilising sufficient resources to finance domestic investment but also of developing effective institutional arrangements to implement such large infrastructure projects.

PPP is nevertheless a funding model for implementing large public infrastructure projects in areas such as -- new telecommunications system, airport, toll roads and bridges, and power plants. The public partner is represented by the government at the national level. The private partner can be a privately-owned business, public corporation or consortium of businesses with expertise in specific fields.

PPP is a broad term that can be applied to anything from a simple, short-term management contract to a long-term contract that includes funding, planning, building, operation, maintenance and divestiture. Such arrangements are useful for large projects that are economically and socially desirable and require significant amounts of resource for implementation.

Also, there should be public-private partnership between the government and the employers for training -- a must for enhancing skill development, especially for beginners and mid-level employees.

Training should be given in such a way that it can bring the expected results for making PPP initiatives successful. It has to be appropriate at each level. There is a need for taking a 'strategic approach' by doing a survey on the types of skills needed in the context of the country's priority areas.

The country's skills development councils and other industry associations should come up with proposals on training. Reports say such organisations have the ability to accommodate these proposals and can solve the problems in public-private partnership.

The main reason is that there is a missing link between the industry demand and the country's 'flawed' educational system. For example, the garment sector was searching for around 70,000 textile engineers in 2014 but managed to get only 5,000. The country needs to identify the reasons for such huge gap between demand and supply.

To meet the country's development targets, investment in infrastructure needs to be increased from the current to $12.5 billion annually, as already mentioned. As such, the investment climate should be made more attractive. Proper infrastructure plan based on sectoral approach is a must for sound completion of PPP projects.

szkhanfe@gmail.com

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Giving a sustained boost to the PPP initiative - The Financial Express BD

Matsheka

ACT NOW, CHANGE NOW: TRANSFORMATION BEGINS WITH YOU DOING JUST THAT

The Botswana Forum for Action and Reform (B-FAR) is an independent and non-party organization established to advocate for accelerated and radical structural and socio-economic transformation of Botswana. Our focus areas are: citizen engagement and empowerment; inclusive and participatory growth; innovative economic diversification; and rapid and sustainable development. This matches what the ruling BDP-led government has pledged to Batswana and by and large, what we all desire as Batswana.

B-FAR works by calling for action and demanding reform to truly and successfully transform Botswana into a prosperous, inclusive and high income nation. Our response to the 2020 Budget Speech is a CALL FOR ACTION.

We congratulate Hon Dr Matsheka for his maiden Budget Speech, and we appreciate the charged delivery of yet another doze of promises to make life better for Batswana, promises made on behalf of the newly elected BDP government that swore to Batswana that it was capable and willing to bring change.

As we recognize the new tone of it can not be business as usual in the Budget Speech, we are reminded that it has been business as usual by the same government for 54 years. We often hear that talk is cheap and action speaks louder than words. Honourable Minister, will you just talk and not act? The only way we can believe you and the BDP government is if we see immediate action and immediate change. As an accomplished scholar, the following words will possibly speak more to you of what we wish to impress upon you and your government:

Transformation isnt a future event. Its a present day activity, Jillian Michaels.

The most useless people are the ones who have never changed for the better over the years, James Barrie.

If you always do what youve always done, you will always get what youve always got, Henry Ford.

If the above wise words from across the world are not sufficient, let us bring you back to a stark reality that Botswana faces. If we do not change now, chances are that it might be too late to do so even if we start as early as 2024 when your current social contract ends. The National Anthem tells us that this desert land is a gift from God. We remind you and your government, with sternness and a sober and solemn mind, that God gave us resources from the desert so as to find ways and means to survive on the desert land.

Your government has toyed with economic diversification, citizen empowerment, sustainable development and all the parameters with which we can survive in the aftermath of the desert resources and your government has done so for decades. We remind you, with the same degree of grimness born out of disappointment that by 2036, sixteen years from now, some of those resources are likely to be depleted, and that if the government does not change now, every year that is wasted out of those 16 years will be drawing us closer to a situation from which we can not escape as a nation. A desert land with an undiversified resource-based economy without resources and a poor and disempowered citizenry is not beneficial to anyone, including those who would somehow have made it this far as even their hard-earned wealth will become of insignificant value.

Honourable Minister and all your compatriots who listened to the 2020 Budget Speech in Parliament as you delivered it, take the following home and remember it: THERE WILL BE NO SECOND CHANCE IN 2036 AS THERE WAS IN 2016. Whilst you do so, and may you do so everywhere you go, let us loudly and emphatically disagree with your observation that The Vision sets high and ambitious targets for all stakeholders to move the country forward. That Vision sets befitting and achievable targets that any government playing a proper facilitatory role should confidently guarantee to its people.

Even without the guarded articulation of the 2020 Budget Speech we all know the problems that we face in Botswana. We will therefore not waste time going over them. Instead, we will go through the interventions, by which we will judge the willingness and preparedness of the government to act and solve those problems. We will also propose measures that are symbolic of committed change, of business unusual, of leaders prepared to think and act outside the box and make brave but thoughtful changes to drive the country beyond the cushioned life that is supported by finite minerals. As we do so, be reminded that Transformation literally means going beyond your form, as one Wayne Dyer observed.

Let us hope you will begin to realize henceforth that you are not telling us the truth when you say The same government transformed the economy to an upper middle income status in the 1990s. The truth that we know as Batswana is that DIAMONDS transformed the economy, starting from the 1970s, admittedly with the good oversight and prudent management of government, BUT government FAILED AND IS FAILING to transform it further from what the diamonds could do or where they could take it. This is the truth.

COMMITMENT TO TRANSFORM THE ECONOMY. Honourable Minister, you expressed the commitment of government to transform the economy through a number of interventions and refocusing existing policies, strategies and programmes such as: service delivery through ICT; creating sustainable jobs; fighting corruption; improving education and training; providing quality healthcare; and attracting local and international investors. We have heard this before. We await specifics, not of things being done as before but things being done differently. Remember the quotation at point 4c above: you can not continue to do things the same way and expect different results. They say, Nothing changes if nothing changes. And we await ACTION. Diamonds can not take us to High Income status, but government should.

B-FAR has cautioned the assertion at SONA 2019 that the National Transformation Strategy was the blue print of Government Development Agenda and likened it to holding on to a straw. You should have realized by now that your strategies are failing because often you do not act and when you do, your actions are mundane and passive. We call for the following actions to be carried out during the 2020/21 financial year:

Service delivery through ICT: We expressly demand that government articulates and begins to implement practical measures in e-governance, blended education, remote healthcare, drone assisted wildlife management (including anti-poaching), intelligent climate resistant agriculture, trade portals and e-commerce, etc. The list goes on and on and the technology has been around for long to allow practical interventions.

Creating sustainable jobs: We request government to issue unemployment reduction targets, with specific figures and accurate statistical projections over time, to provide clear and unambiguous information on job-creating opportunities and projects and to commit to such projects. We can no longer believe blanket statements on job creation and believe it is irresponsible for government to refuse to commit to clear targets.

Fighting corruption: there is absolutely no mention of specific ways by which this will be done. Corruption is likened to cancer for two reasons: 1) just as cancer kills so does corruption destroy economies and livelihoods; 2) just as cancer that is not treated properly can relapse and spread, so does corruption that is handled in a haphazard and shoddy way. This government created the environment for corruption and it is the same government that should take precise, consistent, and determined measures, without fear and favour, to stamp out corruption in all areas once and for all. The BDP-led government will not be forgiven for any less.

Improving education and training and providing quality healthcare: The strategies may be there, but it is the output that tells a different story. This has been the case for a number of years now. We demand less talk but more action.

Attracting local and international investors: Every time the government mentions this intervention, it very quickly becomes clear that government is hypnotically attached to a Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) strategy that works against citizen empowerment a strategy that unashamedly professed in SONA 2019 to rolling out the red carpet to foreign entities at the exclusion or marginalization of citizen and domestic enterprises. For once, we demand that there be clear and unadulterated focus of domestic investment and citizen engagement as would be illustrated in the choice of projects and the nature of the facilitatory role of government.

PERFORMANCE OF STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES. Our response to SONA 2019 carried the following statement:

B-FAR notes the intention of government to embark on a rationalization exercise of ministerial portfolio responsibilities and functions. This is a welcome development. We urge the government to extend this exercise to the State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and quasi-government (parastatal) entities. We believe they too have duplications, overlaps, loss of relevance, shift from mandates and inefficiencies that have become burdensome to the nation.

Honourable Minister, we note with regret that is no visible effort on the rationalization of ministerial portfolio responsibilities and functions. Was it just talk as well. How will we believe and trust the current talk on the SOEs will also remain just that, talk and no action. Nonetheless, we make these specific recommendations, which we demand that they be carried out to move Botswana forward:

Public Enterprises Evaluation & Privatisation Agency (PEEPA): This is where you should start. The reason why government intends to review SOEs is simply that PEEPA failed to do the same for many years. We recommend that the mandate for institutional review be removed from PEEPA and be placed within a Parliamentary Committee. The government plans for Public Private Partnerships can also be removed from PEEPA, where they seem deadlocked, and moved to the Public Procurement & Asset Disposal Board (PPADB). These changes will render PEEPA irrelevant.

Botswana National Productivity Centre (BNPC): There is no evidence of productivity being a problem in Botswana. This may have been the case when BNPC was established by today, government is misreading the attitude that Batswana have against their kindred as lack of productivity. There is no English word to describe that attitude and it appears peculiar to Botswana. There is need to work on that attitude at institutional level and within government structures so that government begins to look at citizens in a more positive light. This should be the new mandate for BNPC.

Combination of PEEPA and BNPC into a new Citizen Empowerment SOE: There is also a running theme in the 2020 Budget Speech for citizen empowerment. Specifically, government wishes to migrate the Citizen Empowerment Policy to Citizen Empowerment Act. The biggest problem in Botswana is implementation, whether it is of policies, strategies or even Acts of Parliament. B-FAR agrees with the move from policy to an Act but believes an institutional body will still be required to enforce the Act and implement its provisions. We recommend the combination of BNPC and PEEPA into a new SOE for Citizen Empowerment. Honourable Minister, government should think outside the box and make impactful changes rather than mere sugar coating reviews. This change is what Botswana needs to realize any meaningful and lasting citizen empowerment and should be done as a matter of extreme urgency.

Air Botswana (AB): AB does not appear in your list of examples of SOEs to be reviewed. We mention it to open the eyes of government that fashionable catchphrases do not work in all cases. Lack of profitability of AB can not be solved through staff retrenchments as its management believes, nor through privatization as government has always believed. In the case of AB, profitability will be a consequence of critical mass. This can be achieved through regional collaboration. As an example, collaboration of Air Botswana with its Namibian counterpart, if not complete merger into a form of sub-regional Air Kalahari. It is wrong for our government to be asking us to celebrate Air Qatar coming to Botswana when we should be celebrating a regional airline with our interests going to Qatar. We ask government to review this possibility during the current financial year and map a more beneficial way forward.

Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) and Water Utilities Corporation: The mandates for these SOEs are given and can not really be changed, the question is a closed-minded approach to solving problems. For BPC, government should insist on a wholesome solar energy strategy and targets beginning now into the future. Solar is no longer an alternative energy source but the preferred source. For WUC, government should probe WUC to look beyond the costly North-South Water Carrier project. A system exists in Kenya for desalination of sea water, and our relations with Namibia provide access to a long-term water solution.

Botswana Meat Commission (BMC): We are deeply concerned that government refuses, year after year, to privatise BMC when it should have do so at the time the two depots in the north were created. We recommend the division of BMC into three companies according to the depots, and privatization of each to the farmers association in those locations without any further delay. We also recommend closure of all BMC off-shore structures and migration of interests to the embassies. The new private owners will by themselves create Direct Investment Abroad (DIA) systems as they are capable of doing so outside of government control. At the same, amf for the same reasons, privatise the Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board (BAMB) and the National Agroprocessing (NAPRO). In place of these entities, establish a regulatory body for all agricultural products and services.

Local Enterprise Authority (LEA): LEA has failing its mandate, specifically the two objectives of improving technology access and enhancing market access for SMME enterprises. In Kenya, hawkers accept electronic payments through mPESA whilst in Botswana they do not even know what e-wallet is. LEA failed to improve access to technology. Botswana remains the only country without a proper market system and is burdened by the chain store and mall syndrome which has suffocated and eliminated local productive enterprises, taking massive amounts of employment potential with it, yet LEA has offices in all major settlement areas in Botswana.

Botswana Development Corporation (BDC): The component of the original mandate of BDC of investment facilitation has been taken over by the Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC). There are two other components: high value project funding and investment holding for the government. Government should review BDC with the specific intention of facilitating it to fund major projects for Batswana, especially in consonance with new developments such as SPEDU and SEZA, and also with the specific intention to derive value for money as an investment holder. There should be an expectation of payment of dividends to government, not the other way round.

Botswana Institute of Technology Research and Innovation (BITRI): BITRI is clearly an institution that deliberately moved away from the intended industrial research and innovation. It exists and functions as an academic institution and is of no relevance to the economy. Despite common belief, it is not a necessary entity for a country to have, and in fact, if mismanaged as it is currently, it stands in the way of private sector led research, technology application and it obstructs private enterprise. It should either be closed or changed to a research interface form more suitable to Botswana, and many such forms exist.

Botswana Innovation Hub (BIH): BIH is largely a construction company that pretends to be a Science & Technology Park. First, the model for innovation hubs has gone through a complete revolution in the past twenty years and is no longer a matter of brick and mortar. Second, S&T Parks typically exist under a higher level entity such as a university or the municipality or even privately controlled enterprise groupings. BIH, has been a costly experiment for the government, and existing on its own, is a misplaced concept that should be changed as a matter of urgency.

Special Economic Zones Authority (SEZA): This new entity appears to be on a wrong footing and has all the bad hallmarks of BIH. It operates on a SEZ Act that was based on a SEZ Policy that was drafted by non-experts, but failed to recognize the need to refine those founding instruments. As an example, it is legally constrained to a specific number of zones in specific technology-based economic areas, yet technology and market environments change all the time. As further example, the SEZ in Tuli Block is for horticulture and water management. Our belief is that horticulture belongs to LEA and of the over 7000 SEZs in the world, ours will be the only one dealing with water management. This SOE needs to be guided before it joins the list of failed SOEs.

Botswana Energy Regulatory Authority (BERA): Our response is that it is not necessary for Botswana to have individual regulatory bodies for every field of activity and some should be combined as much as possible. Energy, water, sanitation and environment should be placed as departments under one authority. In this way, resources will be best utilized and there will be inter-connection between services.

Botswana Fibre Networks (BOFINET): The name of this entity is a license not to innovate as technology evolves. The mandate of BOFINET is of extreme significance in relation to the prospects of Botswana to become a knowledge-based economy. There has also been substantial expenditure todate on projects under BOFINET. Rather than a review on project delivery, it should be a review of impact. Technologically, it should be a review of the speed of communication, economically, a review of the cost. There is another element as there should in all SOEs: the indirect benefits to Batswana. With this high level of expenditure, government should be able to show how much direct employment was created, how many contracted companies had grown as a result of the work from BOFINET and how many new ones were created and how many have graduated to higher levels as a result of work contracted from BOFINET.

National Development Bank (NDB): We take note of the assessment made on NDB by the African Development Bank that is mentioned in the Budget Speech. We do not know why it was called or what the outcome would be. What we know is that there is a need in this country that we are all fully aware of; the need for venture capital, seed capital, angel investment capital or a basket of on-risk funding especially for the youth and for innovative project ideas that have not been tried and tested elsewhere. NDB is currently an unnecessary duplication of CEDA, but as a bank, it already has the capacity to handle this category of funding. We strongly recommend that NDB is restructured for this purpose.

Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA): The only review we call for is with regard to: 1) ensuring that CEDA is adequately capitalized to help Batswana; 2) removing apparent bottlenecks to funding, specifically loan contribution and security. If the intention is to help Batswana, then it is self-defeating to impose limiting conditions on the people that we know will struggle but are the same people we want to assist. Despite the recent post-Budget announcement by the CEDA CEO on security as being limited to curbing proposed salaries of applicants, government should issue a statement in this regard and let it be consistently applied.

SOE Problem is Monumental: The above SOEs are exemplary and we could have interrogated many more. We hope that this analysis and recommendations therefrom demonstrate to the government that Botswana is in a mess with regard to SOEs. The P4.9 billion annual expenditure on SOEs mentioned in the 2020 Budget Speech is a very unnecessary and easily avoidable waste. The loss is much more than just financial, as some of the SOEs operate counter to the aspirations of the nation and continually reverse the gains made in such areas as employment and private sector growth. We earnestly call upon government to take immediate measures to curb the loss even before an extensive review is done, and to execute and finalize the first extensive review during this financial year, and undertake regular reviews annually henceforth

Priority of Evaluation of SOEs: It is difficult to expect that government will evaluate all of the over 60 SOEs this year. It is logical to expect that some of them are not priority cases. It will be a waste of effort to prioritize the evaluation of SOEs like BOCRA, BITC, NAFTRC, BTC and SPEDU at this point in time. B-FAR strongly recommends a Pareto-styled selection of SOEs to evaluate, and puts forward the above SOEs as priority areas for this year. Enough mileage will be achieved from the above listed SOEs alone.

Terminate Long-Serving CEOs: It will not be enough to look inside the SOEs and leave out the leadership. B-FARs response to SONA 2019 carried the following statement:

We further call upon government to appraise senior positions in all of these SOEs as a large part of their inefficiencies has to do with their leadership. To this end, we call upon the removal of underperforming and long-serving officials.

B-FAR reiterates the above call for the removal of all CEOs who have served more than two terms or a total of ten years. This should be easy as government shuffles employees all the time, and is obligatory for a government that preaches inclusive and participatory growth. Keeping CEOs for this long excludes those who deserve to ascend to those positions and denies the country from fresh ideas to move forward. As this is an easy intervention, action is expected even in the first quarter of 2020/21.

AREAS OF CONTENTION COAL BENEFICIATION. There are areas in the 2020 Budget Speech in which government contradicts its intentions. Government seeks to empower citizens, encourage citizen participation in the economy, grow the private sector all very good intentions, but out of the blues it wishes to undertake a large coal beneficiation project. We are saddened by this massive betrayal. We call upon government to cease involving itself in commercial activities that the private sector is well capable of doing. By this act alone, government will have gone against all that it has promised. To make it clear, as a general rule, we call upon government to stay away from commercial activities in which there is processing, manufacturing, packaging, and distribution. The coal beneficiation is bound to fail under the government, the BMC way. We wish to be loudly clear that we do not want to see government jumping from beef to coal, denying citizens and local companies the opportunity as it has done with beef and messing up the economy of Botswana for years to come. This move is even more shocking as the Palapye SEZ is specifically for mineral and energy beneficiation and Batswana, who have long sought to enter this field, are waiting to participate in coal beneficiation when the SEZ is ready. For government to have such significant contradictions is a sign of lack of sincerity on its behalf. We demand that government immediately halts and reverses its intentions to undertake coal beneficiation and issues a statement in that regard.

GENERAL ADVICES: B-FAR advises as follows:

Be prepared to depart from NDP 11: We notice throughout the Budget Speech that anything government intends to do will be within the limits of NDP11. This is prudent, but only to the extent that it does not deter new thinking and innovative solutions that were not captured by NDP11. We hope that the NDP11 will itself be revised with this mindset of thinking outside the box and driving transformative action.

Take advantage of bi-lateral relations: We also notice a glaring omission of Botswanas activities in relation to regionalization and developments across Africa. It appears Botswana is pushed by an external stimulus to participate in multi-lateralism because the country completely ignores bi-lateral opportunities in which it could show initiative. Whilst we participate in the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) which is highly commendable, we have nothing to show emanating from our relations with countries like Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya. We urge government to review its position in this regard. A case in point is the collaboration between Air Botswana and its counterpart in Namibia that we have proposed above. Similar collaborations can be made in the areas of mining, tourism, water, energy, transport, education, agriculture and trade. There is no doubt that bi-lateral collaborations can drive future growth, so we should be seeing examples of this happening in future Budget Speeches.

IN CONCLUSION, we expected nothing less than a unified declaration of a DECADE OF COMMITTED CHANGE from the 2020 Budget Speech. There is a lot that needs to be done. We have not started the transformation journey yet if it is talk and no action and if we do what we have always done.

For the sake of transparency, B-FAR reports that it records all the promises made by government and all the requests for action made by B-FAR. It follows them up and will in time issue a status review of Botswanas transformation journey, failures and successes.

FATSHE LENO, LA RONA. PULA!

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Botswana Forum for Action and Reform (B-FAR) CALL FOR ACTION - The Patriot On Sunday