Gaborone - Botswana and South Africa need to focus on key economic projects that can change the livelihoods of citizens in both two countries, President Jacob Zuma said in Gaborone on Thursday.
“Join hands together to improve tourism between the two countries,” he told the second session of the bi-national commission.
This process would boost economic growth.
Tourism in Botswana is the second contributor to gross domestic product (GDP) after mining.
Zuma, who arrived in Gaborone earlier, said a number of South African companies in the tourism sector had operations in Botswana.
“These companies are in no small measure contributing to the economic diversification of the economy (of Botswana),” he said.
He said there was a need for both nations to form strategic partnerships on areas of priority, and check if decisions are implemented.
“We need to concentrate on areas that have (an) impact on the lives of our people.”
Botswana's president Ian Khama said he was delighted that both countries had worked together in areas of security, defence and trade.
Khama also congratulated Zuma's government for helping restore peace in Lesotho.
Deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa has been in and out of Lesotho recently to broker peace talks following an attempted coup by Lesotho's military.
Ramaphosa facilitated the signing of the Maseru Facilitation Declaration among Lesotho's main political players.
The declaration provided for the reconvening of Lesotho's parliament by King Letsie III on October 17.
National elections were expected to be held at the end of February next year, on a date to be set by the king.
Khama on Thursday also extended his condolences to the South African families who lost loved ones in Nigeria's building collapse.
On 12 September, 116 people, among them 84 South Africans, were killed when a multi-storey guest house attached to the Synagogue Church of all Nations collapsed in Lagos.
At the weekend, the remains of 74 of them were repatriated to South Africa. - Sapa