No to investment in ‘vague’ national projects – BE
MBABANE – “We need to spend the national purse wisely and cautiously in the meantime, by cutting our coat according to our cloth.”
Business Eswatini (BE) has made the call in their statement for the new year. According to BE, plausible attempts to do this are already underway, but the country needs to do more, and do so expeditiously.
“Gone should be the days of unwarranted spending because the level of accountability demanded by every taxpayer will intensify in 2022.
The demand for service delivery on the one hand and accountability on the other means the country will have no choice, but to run a tight ship going forward.
“And this will be doable with the cooperation of all people concerned. One can only pray that the need to go into hard and painful structural adjustments can be circumvented, at least for now,” stressed BE.
Decried
In the statement, BE highlighted that it had on many occasions decried the habit of investing in national projects, whose rate of return was vague and hoped this would no longer be the case this year.
“We cannot afford to invest in more fancy hotels when there are no tourists in sight,” reads the statement.
BE stressed that 2021 had certainly been a tough year for everyone. The social skirmishes that unraveled in the second half of the year are said to have driven the last nail even deeper into the proverbial coffin.
“The endless restrictions that ensued on both businesses and individuals only served to make life even more agonising. It is with this in mind that we are happy to let 2021 disappear into oblivion as we eagerly await to start afresh in 2022,” said BE.
BE, as the apex advocacy body for the business community in Eswatini, emphasised on the need to start the new year with renewed vigour and resolve in a collective endeavour to especially pivot the trajectory of the ailing economy and realign the political spectrum.
Confidence
BE further noted that investor confidence had been shattered to smithereens. The organisation decried that joblessness was skyrocketing faster than new jobs could be created at a time when unemployed youth were woefully disillusioned.
“The business environment does not operate in a vacuum or outside the political environment which conceptualises the policies and laws that determine the rhythm of the nation’s economy.
“This means the business community can ignore the obtaining political ramifications to its own peril as patently demonstrated by recent events.