XXᵉ siècle – XXᵉ siècle
Botswana
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Botswana experienced substantial economic improvement during its first decade of independence, driven by mineral discoveries and negotiated participation in mining revenues. Prospecting from the mid-1960s identified diamond pipes at Orapa and Jwaneng and copper-nickel deposits at Selibe-Pikwe. From 1966 to 1975, GNP growth averaged 5.1 percent annually, although foreign investment, technical difficulties, commodity-price volatility, unemployment, ecological damage, and unequal income distribution limited the benefits of expansion.
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Le récit
Botswana’s economy showed the greatest improvement among the countries discussed during the first decade of independence. From the mid-1960s, extensive prospecting produced notable discoveries, most importantly the diamond pipes at Orapa and Jwaneng and the copper-nickel deposits at Selibe-Pikwe. These finds altered the country’s economic prospects at a moment when the government was still acquiring experience in negotiating mining concessions.
The government later renegotiated the concessions and secured the repayment of more than half of the profits rather than allowing them to be siphoned abroad, as had happened in neighbouring Zambia and Namibia. During the ten years from 1966 to 1975, annual GNP growth averaged 5.1 percent. Technical problems at Selibe-Pikwe and the sharp fall in copper prices after 1974 delayed some expectations attached to the mineral boom, but the prospects for further development remained favourable.
Economic growth nevertheless carried major structural problems. Much of the investment in mining was South African, and the capital required to create each job was high in a country suffering severe underemployment. Agriculture faced uncertain export conditions, ecological damage from unsuitable grazing, and increasingly unequal rural income distribution, while civil-service salary ratios reached approximately ten to one by the mid-1970s. Mineral expansion therefore produced growth without eliminating deep social inequalities.
XXᵉ siècle – XXᵉ siècle
Botswana
Traduction non disponible · Original (anglais) · français indisponible
Botswana experienced substantial economic improvement during its first decade of independence, driven by mineral discoveries and negotiated participation in mining revenues. Prospecting from the mid-1960s identified diamond pipes at Orapa and Jwaneng and copper-nickel deposits at Selibe-Pikwe. From 1966 to 1975, GNP growth averaged 5.1 percent annually, although foreign investment, technical difficulties, commodity-price volatility, unemployment, ecological damage, and unequal income distribution limited the benefits of expansion.
Poursuivre l’exploration
Le récit
Botswana’s economy showed the greatest improvement among the countries discussed during the first decade of independence. From the mid-1960s, extensive prospecting produced notable discoveries, most importantly the diamond pipes at Orapa and Jwaneng and the copper-nickel deposits at Selibe-Pikwe. These finds altered the country’s economic prospects at a moment when the government was still acquiring experience in negotiating mining concessions.
The government later renegotiated the concessions and secured the repayment of more than half of the profits rather than allowing them to be siphoned abroad, as had happened in neighbouring Zambia and Namibia. During the ten years from 1966 to 1975, annual GNP growth averaged 5.1 percent. Technical problems at Selibe-Pikwe and the sharp fall in copper prices after 1974 delayed some expectations attached to the mineral boom, but the prospects for further development remained favourable.
Economic growth nevertheless carried major structural problems. Much of the investment in mining was South African, and the capital required to create each job was high in a country suffering severe underemployment. Agriculture faced uncertain export conditions, ecological damage from unsuitable grazing, and increasingly unequal rural income distribution, while civil-service salary ratios reached approximately ten to one by the mid-1970s. Mineral expansion therefore produced growth without eliminating deep social inequalities.