President At The Inaugural Session Of The Botswana-Namibia BI-National Commission

While these challenges continue to be felt at all levels of our societies, the silver lining is that valuable lessons have been learned from our shared experiences. These include:

◦ the need to scale-up our efforts towards self- sufficiency, especially in the agricultural sector;

◦ strengthening our strategic trade dimensions, given the regularity and frequency of disruptions to global supply chains in current times;

◦ expediting industrialisation in our countries and across the region, by developing and capacitating our manufacturing and energy sectors; as well as

◦ as identifying and exploiting strategic areas of comparative and competitive advantage, so as to elevate our cooperation to higher and more mutually beneficial levels.