SPEDU Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr. Mokubung Mokubung has told the Committee on Statutory Bodies and State Enterprises that he is confident SPEDU is delivering on its mandate.
Appearing before the Committee on Wednesday, Dr. Mokubung said currently SPEDU – a government-owned investment promotion company – works with companies who want to set up in the region until the last stage or gives advice if the project is not viable.
“We are a team of economists, accountants, business advisors, and managers at SPEDU, that is the team,” Dr. Mokubung said when answering a question from the Committee member, Oabile Regoeng who is also a Molepolole North legislator.
The Committee also enquired from Dr. Mokubung if SPEDU’s mandate is not overlapping with other parastatals such as the Local Enterprise (LEA) and Citizen Entrepreneurial Agency (CEDA).
However, he said there is an utmost collaboration between the organizations since they also fall under the same ministry.
“As we do that, we are confidently delivering on our mandate, and of course there are challenges, especially the investment incentives delays,” said Dr. Mokubung, adding that SPEDU had to advocate for incentives to attract investments to the SPEDU region.
Each parastatal, Mokubung said is aware of its mandate and there is absolutely no duplication of efforts among SPEDU, CEDA, LEA, and the Special Economic Zones Authority (SEZA).
Regarding the targets, Dr. Mokubung told the Committee that SPEDU has created a total of 2800 jobs against the set 6500 jobs because the incentives were not in place, however, he revealed that incentives to attract investors to the SPEDU region have started to roll in.
He said SPEDU had a problem with the Ministry of Health at some stage to approve the pharmaceutical 30 percent certificate for the oxygen gas.
Dr. Mokubung said there was a fuss in terms of the clauses because the reservation was believed to be disadvantaging the Economic Diversification Drive (EDD).
