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"Beyond the Sparkle" : diversification of mineral-rich economies: The case of Botswana

Botswana is known as Africa's growth miracle, having transformed from one of the poorest countries in the world at independence, into a middle-income economy in a short period of time. The country's success has been reliant on high revenues accrued from its diamond mining industry, however, governme...

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Main Author: Modungwa, Bame
Other Authors: Black, Anthony
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: School of Economics 2018
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access_status_str Open Access
author Modungwa, Bame
author2 Black, Anthony
author_browse Black, Anthony
Modungwa, Bame
author_facet Black, Anthony
Modungwa, Bame
author_sort Modungwa, Bame
collection Thesis
description Botswana is known as Africa's growth miracle, having transformed from one of the poorest countries in the world at independence, into a middle-income economy in a short period of time. The country's success has been reliant on high revenues accrued from its diamond mining industry, however, government expects diamond production to decline rapidly in the next 10 - 15 years. Diamond depletion presents a threat to Botswana's economic growth, development and macroeconomic stability, which has created the urgent need for economic diversification to be realised in the near future. This dissertation explores the concept and theory behind economic diversification for resource abundant countries. Country cases are reviewed alongside the literature on economic diversification, in order to build an analytical framework on economic diversification for mineral-rich economies. The drivers of diversification are classified under three themes: the enabling environment approach, the interventionist approach and the sector-driven approach. Botswana's efforts to diversify are evaluated against these themes, highlighting the prospects and barriers to success. The dissertation concludes that the quest for economic diversification is not an easy one, particularly in countries such as Botswana with single-resource dependence. Moreover, in order for Botswana to succeed, it will require a policy mix incorporating aspects of the three themes. The government of Botswana (GoB) must ensure that they develop an enabling environment to incentivise increased export development; they should invest in physical and human capital in order to facilitate private sector growth, and they should set policies and targets to support sectors that show potential to become internationally competitive.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
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license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2018
publishDateRange 2018
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spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/27978 "Beyond the Sparkle" : diversification of mineral-rich economies: The case of Botswana Modungwa, Bame Black, Anthony Economic Development Botswana is known as Africa's growth miracle, having transformed from one of the poorest countries in the world at independence, into a middle-income economy in a short period of time. The country's success has been reliant on high revenues accrued from its diamond mining industry, however, government expects diamond production to decline rapidly in the next 10 - 15 years. Diamond depletion presents a threat to Botswana's economic growth, development and macroeconomic stability, which has created the urgent need for economic diversification to be realised in the near future. This dissertation explores the concept and theory behind economic diversification for resource abundant countries. Country cases are reviewed alongside the literature on economic diversification, in order to build an analytical framework on economic diversification for mineral-rich economies. The drivers of diversification are classified under three themes: the enabling environment approach, the interventionist approach and the sector-driven approach. Botswana's efforts to diversify are evaluated against these themes, highlighting the prospects and barriers to success. The dissertation concludes that the quest for economic diversification is not an easy one, particularly in countries such as Botswana with single-resource dependence. Moreover, in order for Botswana to succeed, it will require a policy mix incorporating aspects of the three themes. The government of Botswana (GoB) must ensure that they develop an enabling environment to incentivise increased export development; they should invest in physical and human capital in order to facilitate private sector growth, and they should set policies and targets to support sectors that show potential to become internationally competitive. 2018-05-07T14:19:51Z 2018-05-07T14:19:51Z 2018 Master Thesis Masters MCom http://hdl.handle.net/11427/27978 eng application/pdf School of Economics Faculty of Commerce University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Economic Development
Modungwa, Bame
"Beyond the Sparkle" : diversification of mineral-rich economies: The case of Botswana
thesis_degree_str Master's
title "Beyond the Sparkle" : diversification of mineral-rich economies: The case of Botswana
title_full "Beyond the Sparkle" : diversification of mineral-rich economies: The case of Botswana
title_fullStr "Beyond the Sparkle" : diversification of mineral-rich economies: The case of Botswana
title_full_unstemmed "Beyond the Sparkle" : diversification of mineral-rich economies: The case of Botswana
title_short "Beyond the Sparkle" : diversification of mineral-rich economies: The case of Botswana
title_sort beyond the sparkle diversification of mineral rich economies the case of botswana
topic Economic Development
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/27978
work_keys_str_mv AT modungwabame beyondthesparklediversificationofmineralricheconomiesthecaseofbotswana