Lijeng Ranooe
THE Basotho Enterprises Development Corporation (BEDCO) recently launched the Promoting Enterprise Development (PED), an initiative that targets the socio-economic challenges that are affecting the country.
The PED is a component of the Economic Diversification Support Project (EDSP) of the government which is supported by the African Development Bank.
It aims to support the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through business incubation services, strategy and implementation plan for business incubation to support new entrepreneurs and business plan competitions.
The Private Sector Competitiveness, Economic Diversification Project (PSC-EDP) project manager, Chaba Mokuku, said the country needs to double its efforts through private sector development.
“The country must double its efforts to promote economic growth through private sector development in order to diversify the economy,” Mr Mokuku said.
“The project is consistent with key sector policies that identify the main challenges and opportunities for private sector development and the critical priorities in the short to medium term.
“It is therefore designed to directly address challenges and priorities set out in the government policies and strategies to promote and expand the private sector’s participation in the economy.”
He said the PED project was a sub–component to the development objective of the EDSP as it also aims to contribute inclusive growth through enhanced economic diversification and strengthening enterprise development.
“While the objective is to support private sector development through improving partnership, entrepreneurship and skills development in the selected sectors, entrepreneurship involves taking risks. This is the driving force for the private sector to create wealth, micro-SMEs will be the key driver for job creation and urbanisation in the coming years.
“This will allow the government to create an enabling environment for informal and formal micro-SMEs through the design and implementation of a coherent business incubation strategy; an inclusive Business Services Market Growth Strategy as well as to design and implementation of a Business Plan Competition Model” Mr Mokuku said.
