Gaborone, Botswana

Economy | Education | Infrastructure

🇧🇼 Gaborone is the capital and largest city of Botswana with a population of about 10% of the total population of Botswana.

Gaborone City is situated between Kgale Hill and Oodi Hill, near the confluence of the Notwane River and Segoditshane River in the south-eastern corner of Botswana, 15 km (9.3 mi) from the South African border. The city is served by the Sir Seretse Khama International Airport. It is an administrative district in its own right, but is the capital of the surrounding South-East District. Locals often refer to the city as GC or Motse-Mshate.

The city of Gaborone is named after Chief Gaborone of the Tlokwa tribe, who once controlled land nearby. Because it had no tribal affiliation and was close to fresh water, the city was planned to be the capital in the mid-1960s when the Bechuanaland Protectorate became an independent nation. The centre of the city is a long strip of commercial businesses, called "Main Mall" with a semicircle-shaped area of government offices to its east. Gaborone was once one of the fastest-growing cities in the world, and this has created problems with housing and illegal settlements. The city has also dealt with conflicts spilling into the country from Zimbabwe and South Africa during the 1980s.

Gaborone is the economic capital as well as the government capital; it is headquarters to numerous companies and the Botswana Stock Exchange. Gaborone is also home to the Southern African Development Community (SADC), a regional economic community established in 1980. Many languages are spoken there, Setswana (Tswana) being the main tongue. English, Kalanga, and Kgalagadi are also spoken.

Economy Gaborone is the centre of the national economy. The headquarters of important financial institutions such as the Bank of Botswana, Bank Gaborone, BancABC, and the Botswana Stock Exchange are centrally located, as well as the headquarters for Air Botswana, Consumer Watchdog, Botswana Telecommunications Corporation, and Debswana, the joint diamond mining venture between De Beers and the Botswana government. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has its headquarters in Gaborone; the organisation was formed in 1980 to increase economic cooperation among its members and reduce dependence on South Africa.

Several international companies have invested in the city: Hyundai, SABMiller, Daewoo, Volvo, and Siemens.

Orapa House, owned by Debswana, is where the diamonds mined from Debswana are sorted and valued. Orapa House is located at the intersection of Khama Crescent and Nelson Mandela Drive. It has a unique style of architecture that allows the optimal amount of indirect sunlight to shine through the windows in order to accurately sort diamonds.

A Diamond Technology Park was recently opened, this is as part of Botswana Government's vision for establishment of downstream diamond industry. Companies dealing in diamonds have established their local operations in the park.

The Botswana Resource Conference is held annually at the Gaborone International Conference Centre.

The unemployment rate in Gaborone is 11.7% as of 2008. 19.7% of the population in Gaborone is employed in the financial sector.

According to Mercer's 2011 Worldwide Cost of Living Survey, Gaborone has the 195th highest cost of living for expatriates in the world, up from 203rd in 2010. Gaborone comes between Chennai, India and Quito, Ecuador. Gaborone is the fourth least expensive city for expatriates in Africa, coming in above Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at 211th, Kampala, Uganda at 202nd and Windhoek, Namibia at 198th.

Education The main campus of the University of Botswana (which was established in 1982) is on the eastern extent of the city.

In addition there are other universities or institutions of higher education that cater to specialized study and instruction: Limkokwing University Of Creative Technology (which also has a campus in Gaborone); the Botswana Accountancy College (which caters to both accounting and IT students); Botswana Open University (offering long-distance learning); Gaborone Technical College; Boitekanelo College; Botho University (which offers courses ranging from computing, accounting and finance, business, engineering and health information management); and Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, situated approximately 15 km (9.3 mi) from the city centre.

Further, in year 2006, the Gaborone Universal College of Law, opened its main campus in Gaborone, with its first group of students graduating in 2010.

Infrastructure Gaborone is one of the fastest-growing cities in Africa. The growth of Gaborone, especially suburban growth, has caused much of the farmland surrounding the city to be absorbed into the city. Much of the food for Gaborone comes from north of the city with some smaller-scale farms on the southern end. The city centre was planned to be functionalist, with major buildings designed and built in the style of Modern architecture. The city is surrounded by smaller buildings. The city's central business district (CBD) is still under construction so when one says downtown, they actually mean the Main Mall and Government Enclave areas where tall buildings are usually found. The Main Mall, a car-free shopping and commercial area, runs in an east–west direction with the Government Enclave and National Assembly on the west end and the Gaborone City Town Council complex on the east.

Gaborone's CBD is home to the new Square Mall, The Tower, the new SADC headquarters, the Industrial Court, a court specifically for settling trade disputes, and the Three Dikgosi Monument, a landmark featuring the statues of Khama III, Sebele I, and Bathoen I, three dikgosi, or chiefs, who traveled to Great Britain to establish the Bechuanaland Protectorate separate from Southern Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe) or the Cape Colony (present-day South Africa). The monument was inaugurated on 29 September 2005. While the statues represent famous historical figures, there has been some controversy over the cost of the construction, P12,000,000 (approx. US$1.7M, €1.4M, or £1.1M as of June 2010), and over the construction company, North Korean Mansudae Overseas Projects, putting the wrong inscription date. Other buildings under construction in the CBD include the Holiday Inn Gaborone, retail space, and office space.

Gaborone, Botswana 
<b>Gaborone, Botswana</b>
Image: Jota

Gaborone is rated Sufficiency by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) which evaluates and ranks the relationships between world cities in the context of globalisation. Sufficiency level cities are cities that have a sufficient degree of services so as not to be overly dependent on world cities.

Gaborone was ranked #534 by the Nomad List which evaluates and ranks remote work hubs by cost, internet, fun and safety. Gaborone has a population of over 231,626 people. Gaborone also forms the centre of the wider Gaborone metropolitan area which has a population of over 421,907 people. Gaborone is ranked #973 for startups with a score of 0.085.

To set up a UBI Lab for Gaborone see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork

Twin Towns, Sister Cities Gaborone has links with:

🇺🇸 Burbank, USA 🇮🇩 Sorong, Indonesia 🇸🇪 Västerås, Sweden 🇳🇦 Walvis Bay, Namibia 🇿🇦 Worcester, South Africa
Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license | GaWC | Nomad | StartupBlink

Antipodal to Gaborone is: -154.09,24.64

Locations Near: Gaborone 25.91,-24.64

🇧🇼 Mochudi 26.15,-24.417 d: 34.7  

🇿🇦 Mahikeng 25.642,-25.865 d: 138.8  

🇿🇦 Brits 27.767,-25.633 d: 217.1  

🇿🇦 Klerksdorp 26.665,-26.871 d: 259.3  

🇿🇦 Krugersdorp 27.767,-26.1 d: 247.3  

🇿🇦 Randfontein 27.701,-26.182 d: 248.5  

🇿🇦 Mogale 27.771,-26.103 d: 247.8  

🇧🇼 Serowe 26.695,-22.389 d: 262.8  

🇿🇦 Potchefstroom 27.095,-26.716 d: 259.6  

🇿🇦 Soshanguve 28.172,-25.425 d: 244  

Antipodal to: Gaborone -154.09,24.64

🇺🇸 Kahului -156.466,20.891 d: 19532.3  

🇺🇸 Wailuku -156.505,20.894 d: 19530.5  

🇺🇸 Maui County -156.617,20.868 d: 19522.1  

🇺🇸 Maui -156.446,20.72 d: 19516.7  

🇺🇸 Hilo -155.089,19.725 d: 19459  

🇺🇸 Honolulu -157.85,21.3 d: 19480.3  

🇺🇸 Pearl City -157.969,21.394 d: 19478.6  

🇺🇸 Kapa'a -159.333,22.083 d: 19409.2  

🇺🇸 Līhuʻe -159.35,21.967 d: 19401.2  

🇺🇸 Lihue -159.35,21.967 d: 19401.2  

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