Investor confidence rebounding – Neal
MBABANE – The Minister of Finance, Neal Rijkenberg, says Eswatini has continued to implement targeted improvements to the business environment and it bearing fruit, as investor confidence is rebounding.
In his budget speech delivered yesterday, the minister said these improvements were meant to address the discontinuation of the Ease of Doing Business Index by the World Bank Group in September of 2021.
Rijkenberg said to date, this has seen the establishment of the Commercial Court, Small Claims Courts, and the launch of the Electronic Trading Platform at the Eswatini Stock Exchange (ESE), improvements in the company registration process, including the electronic payment and the elimination of the requirement for advertising when applying for trading licences.
He said the rebounding of the investor confidence was witnessed by the new business establishments that were continuing to invest in the Eswatini economy, creating the much-needed jobs.
He stated that in partnership with the European Union, the International Trade Centre and Business Eswatini (BE), the prime minister (PM) has officially launched the State Business Relations initiative, with the primary objective of establishing a competitiveness council in Eswatini.
Obstacles
He said this was a forum, chaired by the PM and in partnership with the private sector, to drive investment, remove obstacles that frustrate and prevent foreign direct investment and drive legislative change to make Eswatini more private sector focused and business-friendly.
Rijkenberg said as was evident in the Post-COVID-19 Recovery Plan, if rolled out effectively; the State Business Relations initiative should give the country a 0.25 per cent gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2024, and at least 0.5 per cent growth annually thereafter.
He added that the government was currently spearheading the amendment of the Special Economic Zones Act. He said a diagnostic process had been carried out by the Export Processing Zones Authority (EPZA) from the Republic of China (Taiwan) who through an intergovernmental cooperation arrangement agreed to assist Eswatini in reforming the SEZ legislation.
The minister said government remained committed to build ingfactory shells to stimulate the entry of new investors into the local market and to create jobs.
He said the construction of the Gamula and Hlatikhulu factory shells had been completed.
Employ
He said these factory shells were expected to employ 1 000 and 450 people, respectively.
“Moreover, the factory shell that was purchased at Ngwenya currently employs over 900 people. The Ndzevane and Johnson Work wear factory shells are under construction and are anticipated to be completed this year,” he said.
The minister mentioned that the government would then pursue the completion of two factory shell structures at Ngwenya and commence construction of the Bulandzeni factory shell.
“If we continue with an aggressive rollout of factory shells, this should add at least 0.5 per cent growth in GDP every year,” he said.