In accordance with Section 85 of the Public Procurement Regulations, procuring entities must include a mandatory provision in tender documents requiring successful bidders to transfer technological or other skills to citizens or local contractors. This transfer is to be achieved through training, mentoring, and active participation. Additionally, the tender document must reserve employment opportunities for citizens in works, consultancy services, and non-consultancy services, including positions at the professional and management levels.

Botswana is not a party to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) nor does it have observer status.

The Botswana Telecommunications Corporation Limited (BTCL) is a telecom company and was formerly a government parastatal. According to Clause 6.2 of the Constitution of the BTCL, no shares shall be issued to foreigners. Therefore, foreigners cannot own shares in this telecommunications company, which is also the only listed telecommunications company in Botswana.

Art. 17 of the Trade Act grants the Minister the authority to designate specific trades or businesses as exclusively reserved for citizens of Botswana or companies wholly owned by Botswana citizens. In line with Section 24 of the Trade Regulations, the businesses reserved for locals include, among others, cell phone shops and internet cafés. However, joint ventures between citizens and non-citizens may be approved by the Minister responsible for medium and large enterprises.

Section 145 of the Companies Act provides that a public company shall have at least two directors, and a private company shall have at least one director who shall be ordinarily resident in Botswana.

The Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC) was established by the Botswana Investment and Trade Centre Act. Part V of the Act sets the functions, powers and duties of the Centre, which screens all proposed investments to ensure that they fall within the set priority investment sectors. An investment application is likely to succeed if it demonstrates some of the following:
- Number and quality/level of employment created;
- Potential for skills and technology transfer;
- Potential for export and import substitution;
- Potential to create backward and forward linkages;
- Innovation and creativity;
- Priority sector under the Economic Diversification Drive (EDD).

Botswana is a party to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

Botswana has a copyright regime under the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act 2000. However, the exceptions do not follow the fair use or fair dealing model, therefore limiting the lawful use of copyrighted work by others. Section 12 lists the exceptions, which include private reproduction for personal purposes, reproduction for teaching, reprographic reproduction by libraries and archives, reproduction, broadcasting and other communications to the public for information purposes, importation for personal purposes and temporary reproduction, amongst other things. In addition, Section 3 of the Act lists the types of works that would be protected, including computer programs. Furthermore, Section 36 provides that the provisions of any international treaty with respect to copyright and related rights to which Botswana is a party shall apply. Botswana is a signatory to the TRIPS Agreement, which has incorporated the Berne Convention.

Copyright enforcement online in Botswana is inadequate. Reports indicate that piracy and content theft in Botswana primarily take the form of online broadcast piracy, which entails using video and audio content without the permission of the rights holders.

Botswana is not a signatory of the 1996 World Trade Organization (WTO) Information Technology Agreement (ITA) nor the 2015 expansion (ITA II).

Botswana has ratified the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty.

Section 76 of the Public Procurement Act stipulates that, except as otherwise provided under this Act, all works, services, and supplies procurement should be reserved for a citizen or national contractor. In particular, certain procurement activities are reserved for local producers or suppliers. These include:
- Procurement activity offered only by a fully national-owned MSME;
- Goods manufactured locally by a fully national contractor;
- Services provided by a citizen or a fully national contractor;
- A procurement activity intended to promote innovation, local technology, and the commercialisation of the procurement activity; and
- The creation of jobs, capacity-building, and skills transfer.
Further details about reservation schemes can be found in Regulation 88 of the Public Procurement Regulations.
The Public Procurement Act repealed the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, which contained a different reservation scheme. Section 71 of the repealed Act provided that reservation schemes applied to procurement of the following nature: low complexity; limited scale; repetitive in nature; having a financial ceiling; open only to citizen contractors; and based only on competition among the eligible contractors in the classification in question.

Botswana has ratified the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Performances and Phonograms Treaty.