El punto de partida de las políticas de ajuste de la era Menem:

Botswana vision 2016 is the Government’s strategy to meet the social challenges faced by the country. Botswana vision 2016 underpins many of Botswana’s wider sector policies and represents a strategy to transform the country into a com- petitive and prosperous nation. The year 2016 is a particularly important milestone for Botswana as it will mark the 50th anniversary of independence. Botswana vision 2016 reflects the long-term aspirations of the people of Botswana and is based around seven key pillars:

Work on defining Botswana vision 2016 began in 1996 with a nine-person Presidential Task Group. Later expanded to 31 people, the Task Group was charged with consulting the people of Botswana to discover their common aspirations for the future of the nation. The public were invited to contri- bute to the vision through written submissions and through a series of open hearings in the main district centres. How- ever, such consultations did not take account of the opinions and views of the rural population, because they had limited means of hearing about vision 2016 and were unable to attend the meetings because they were held in district cen- tres. Therefore, the University of Botswana was tasked with carrying out consultations in a selection of small villages and remote settlements. These consultations showed that rural communities had quite different aspirations and needs com- pared to people living in the main urban centres. This was a very important revelation which laid the foundation for the development of the Kitsong centres. vision 2016 sets out the aspirations and dreams of the type of society every Batswana1

wishes to have by the year 2016, on the 50th anniversary of independence.

Underpinning Botswana vision 2016 are national develop- ment plans covering different sectors. While the postal sector has its own postal sector policy, it is also affected by the ICT sector policy. Botswana’s national ICT policy is known as Mait- lamo. The vision and objectives of Maitlamo were developed in April 2004:

ICT facilities in rural Botswana through the national postal service

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Botswana will be a globally competitive, knowledge and infor- mation society where lasting improvements in social, eco- nomic and cultural development is achieved through effective use of ICT. The following priorities have been identified: – creation of an enabling environment for the growth of

an ICT industry in the country;

– provision of universal service and access to information and communication facilities in the country; and – making Botswana a Regional ICT hub so as to make the

country’s ICT sector globally competitive.

BotswanaPost is a key player in helping achieve the objec- tive of providing universal service and access to informa- tion through its network of post offices. As a Government- owned entity under the control of the Ministry of Transport and Communication (MTC), BotswanaPost is mandated with the provision, development, operation and management of postal services in Botswana. It has a network of 119 post offices and 73 postal agencies throughout the country. These 192 service points extend throughout the whole country and make it the “right organization with the required infrastruc- ture right around the country” and the most suitable govern- ment partner for dealing with the provision of information to rural communities.

The Government developed a number of postal sector policy statements including the following goal for the postal sector:

The goal of the Government of Botswana is to reform and develop the postal sector to cope with the socio-economic and technological changes, and increase response to market needs while ensuring access to basic postal services by all citi- zens and guarantee the provision of the same at acceptable costs and high quality.

The Government’s goal can be seen as both a “carrot” and a “stick” for BotswanaPost. On the one hand it talks about reforming and developing the postal sector, which might mean liberalization of the sector to give customers wider choice. On the other hand, it talks about ensuring access to basic postal services to all citizens, which can be seen as a commitment to protecting the interests of BotswanaPost in providing universal services. The difficulty for the Govern- ment is ensuring a suitable balance that will adequately meet social and commercial obligations.

The Government’s vision of the postal sector is:

To develop modern postal services, which will contribute to the social and economic development of Botswana as well as to ensure continued universal service provision.

While the vision is not explicitly focused on BotswanaPost it suggests strong support from Government for ensuring that the national postal operator is able to provide universal ser- vices that contribute to the social and economic development of Botswana. If the vision is implicitly focused on the role of BotswanaPost, the specific objectives of the postal sector policy are clearly focused on the national operator.

Underpinning the postal sector goal and vision are nine spe- cific objectives:

1 Meeting of unfulfilled demand and improvement of the quality of postal services

2 Maximization of network capacity 3 Deregulation of the postal market

4 Strengthen the policy management and regulatory role of Government

5 Reduction of dependence on the state budget 6 Stimulate investment

7 Elimination of cross-subsidies 8 Increasing private sector development 9 Integration of communication policies

A number of the postal sector policy objectives set the base on which BotswanaPost became a player in the provision of ICT services. Maximizing network capacity is a clear refer- ence to increasing the services provided through post office outlets. BotswanaPost faces the same challenge as most countries: how to generate additional income in the 80% of post offices that are located in rural and semi-rural locations. Having counter automation in such offices enables Botswa- naPost to provide an increased range of services and increase the utilization of staff.

Reduction of dependence on the state budget and elimination of cross-subsidies2 _{are two more objectives}

that require BotswanaPost to invest in providing new services to increase revenue. BotswanaPost has already developed relationships with Botswana Savings Bank, the Motor vehicle Accident Fund, Botswana Power Corporation and Botswana Life Assurance Ltd to provide their services through post offices. Counter automation provides opportunities for such partnerships to be extended to many other organizations. The ninth objective of “integration of communication poli- cies” in particular merits closer review:

9 Integration of communication policies – to increase access for the population to all communications serv- ices in the framework of the telecommunications, ICT– Maitlamo, broadcasting and printed media policies and postal policies with combined activities in smaller communities within the country through the use of so-called Kitsong centres.

The ninth objective of the postal sector policy in particular enlists BotswanaPost to aid in the delivery of Maitlamo (ICT policy). The principle of objective 9 is to utilize post offices to deliver integrated communications services in rural locations. This effectively means the conversion of post offices into Kitsong centres. The objective is to improve BotswanaPost’s customer service delivery options by turning ordinary postal outlets into contemporary communication and postal delivery centres.

2 _{elimination of cross-subsidies is one of the nine specific objectives of the Government. However, it should be outlined that cross-subsidies are}

increasingly seen as an asset for inclusion policies in the latest views of donors and economists. This is why “bad” and “good” cross-subsidies must be distinguished – the “bad” being anti-competitive and introducing barriers to entry, while the “good” are pro-inclusive and help overcome a market failure in the provision of services.

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