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His Majesty said it was vital for government to take immediate action to revive the national economy and improve service delivery to all areas of the kingdom.
In particular, His Majesty pointed out that it was critical that major capital projects and infrastructure developments, including the start of the Parliament Building and data recovery centre proceeded.
The King emphasised that the completion of the International Convention Centre and Five Star Hotel (ICC/FISH) must be prioritised in the next financial year.
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It should be noted that while government has maintained that the ICC/FISH is a viable project; concerns have been raised about its ballooning costs.
As at March 31, 2021, a sum of E2.255 billion had been spent on the construction of the ICC.
As at March 31, 2021, a sum of E1.846 billion had been spent on FISH construction.
The estimated total cost for FISH is E2 580 086 000, while that of the ICC is E4 484 109 000.
The ICC had in the 2023/2-24 financial year been allocated an amount of around E800 million for interior works, something which was set to increase the total amount spent on this particular part of the development rise to around E3 billion.
Meanwhile, His Majesty elaborated on infrastructure development by revealing that the strategic oil reserve construction will commence in the next six months, something he said would fulfil the country’s sufficiency objectives.
“Government should also implement a comprehensive national infrastructure programme to upgrade our roads, power supply, offices, water, and housing. The country remains with about 400 kilometres of roads that still needs to be tarred.
“The status of our rural roads needs improvement, as many of our people and transport operators have appealed to government to fix and resurface them,” His Majesty said, further urging government to use affordable technologies that were good for low-traffic volumes to alleviate the problem faced by the citizens of the country.
The King did not leave out the energy sector, as he highlighted that it was the driving force for economic development.
“In our unwavering pursuit of our development vision as a country, the importance of energy to drive growth cannot be emphasised enough. We proudly celebrate our commendable electrification rate of 82 per cent.
“However, it is paramount to acknowledge that a significant portion of our energy is imported from our neighbours. This requires that we invest heavily in local energy generation to ensure self-dependency, which will be affordable and sustainable in light of our 2025 electricity contract with Eskom in South Africa,” His Majesty said.
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Regarding the health sector, His Majesty also set a timeline for government, by giving a directive that it should expedite the commencement of the process of mobilising resources for the construction of the referral hospital as promised by the friends of the kingdom.
“This should be done in the next financial year. No liSwati should die from lack of proper health services. Healthcare needs the support of housing welfare for our people and the country needs to invest in reviving the urban and rural housing schemes for the benefit of our needy people. These will complement the ongoing development of our towns across the country,” His Majesty said.