Representing 40 per cent of Botswana’s GDP and 70 per cent of its exports, diamonds remain the principal sector of collaboration between India and Botswana. “We want the Indian companies to invest in Botswana and set up their units for polishing, cutting and innovative processing of diamonds in here. This will be the best way to forge a long, stable and a win-win relationship,” Minister Kenewendo, told IANS. About 8,000 persons of Indian origin currently live in Botswana and nearly 3,000 of them are believed to have taken the Botswanian nationality.

“I came in 1988 from Chennai. I was hired as a teacher and soon after I started a business in the manufacturing sector. In the span of 30 years, a lot of investors have come in the country and it has modernised tremendously. We are mainly into imports but since it is a landlocked we rely on countries like South Africa and Namibia where there are seaports,” said Mr Rajamanickam Baskar, Director of Madura Enterprises that is in the FMCG and healthcare sector. Mr Jagadessan Naidu, who hails from Coimbatore, set up his business, Nira Holdings that is active in the fields of borehole pumps, electrical installation and maintenance and fluid control systems, in 2000. He says that he made profits quite quickly and has grown his business tremendously within 10 years. “The growth rate of Botswana is just like in India; I never faced any corruption issues. Also money is safe; banking is strong and a number of Indian banks like SBI, BOI and Bank of Baroda are also present here. What we need though is to develop logistics but everything is to be done and this is what makes it exciting for investors from India,” he explained.