Botswana hopes to deepen cooperation with China in digital and technological fields to accelerate and diversify its economic transformation and gain ground among more advanced economies, according to a Botswanan official.
At the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, President of the Republic of Botswana Duma Gideon Boko is paying a state visit to China from Oct 12 to 17, with the two sides set to focus on expanding cooperation in trade, the digital economy, renewable energy, and other fields, Boko said.
In an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN) ahead of Boko's trip, Shawn Ntlhaile, Botswana's Assistant Minister of Communications and Innovation, outlined his expectations for cooperation between the two countries.
He noted that Botswana supports the important call made by President Xi in his keynote address at the 2026 World AI Conference in Shanghai in July, during which he called for extensive international cooperation to help Global South countries bridge the AI and digital divides.
Ntlhaile said enhanced access to digital infrastructure could help Botswana and other African nations narrow the technology gap, and believes closer collaboration with China will provide the country with the necessary resources to move forward.
"We are certain that President Xi Jinping's call for the world to come to the table and make the digital infrastructure available is very important for the development, so that Africa and especially countries like Botswana, which are lagging behind in technology, can get an opportunity to leapfrog. Because we are also inspired by China's leapfrogging. In the past 30 to 40 years, China was able to build its economy," he said.
"We hear that China specifically is pushing for open source in technology such as artificial intelligence, so for us it's a big inspiration and encouragement that we should rally, especially African countries, we should rally behind President Xi's call, because it will help us to move fast, to catch up with developed nations in the technological space. Because the whole world is moving technology [forward], it's moving towards the digital economy. So we believe that this is a great opportunity for Botswana to be able to catch up," he said.
While Ntlhaile highlighted Botswana's strength in diamonds which account for more than 90 percent of the country's total exports, he hopes new technology will enable Botswana to now diversify its economy.
"Diamonds have helped us historically up to here, but we believe that there are new challenges and we believe that we need now to diversify, and technology offers a big opportunity for us as a country," he said.
Botswana hopes deeper digital cooperation with China can help leapfrop development: official
