Consider permanent residency for good investment – King
NYORK, USA – A good investment could soon guarantee an investor permanent residency, almost immediately.
This follows His Majesty’s call to the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade to engage his Cabinet colleagues to look into the possibility of providing such an incentive.
The call was announced yesterday during the Eswatini Business Forum hosted in New York in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
It came about after UNDP Regional Director for Africa, Ahuuna Eziakonwa, received a text from a successful business friend she had just informed of the existing investment opportunities in Eswatini, to enquire from His Majesty if permanent residency for investment was a possibility.
“I have just been instructed by His Majesty, to take this matter up with my colleague at Home Affairs to work on making this a possibility for those whose investment reach a reasonable threshold,” announced Commerce, Industry and Trade Minister Manqoba Khumalo, to a round of applause.
This came shortly after His Majesty had addressed the gathering, where he assured the guests at the forum of Eswatini’ s commitment to offer various incentives that would make their investments in the country worth their decision.
He said the kingdom had embarked on a strategy to resuscitate the economy through a private sector and export-led economy. He said Eswatini was on a growth trajectory following positive statistics of the country’s GDP for the past year, which reflects a 7.9 per cent growth. “We wish to appeal to multinational financial entities to be sympathetic to the requests for financial support that is necessary to make these programmes a reality,” he said.
The King paid particular recognition to UNDP for its support to the country’s development initiatives, the latest being extended to the Eswatini Investment Promotion Authority (EIPA). He said EIPA, through the support of
UNDP, launched the Eswatini SDG Investor Map in July this year, which provides evidence, data, and concrete recommendations on viable business models to attract foreign and domestic investors, while channelling the financial resources to the country’s priority development areas and SDGs.
Investment
He noted the work that has been done under the Eswatini SDG Investor Map as giving traction to the country’s efforts to lure investment. “We can now confidently approach investors with projects that have sound information supporting the opportunity, including indicative returns and other key sector information around each area,” he said.
As a result of this exercise,
Eswatini will participate for the first time in the SDG investment fair to be held in December this year.
In preparation for the SDG investment fair, Eswatini is receiving technical support from the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) for which the King expressed gratitude.
The King further assured the participants that Eswatini was constantly shaping her investment climate to ensure that the operational environment is more permissive to business.
He said this was being done by paying close attention to all factors to stay competitive. He also extended appreciation to all the participants for making the time to be part of this important investment seminar, where they got to learn more about the kingdom.
“We are hopeful that after the seminar, the business community, private sector companies and multinational investors represented here, will commit to investing in the Eswatini economy. This would mark the beginning of future and further engagements, as well as networking on investment opportunities - Hence we say to you today, that Eswatini is open for business,” emphasised the King.
BIllIon
The country presented six areas of possible investment opportunities which were estimated at over US$3.3 billion, which is over E52 billion with a potential to create about 25 000 employment opportunities.
These are: The Eswatini Rail link and Mpaka Inland Container Project; a 300MW Renewable Energy Project; the Five Star Hotel and Villa Development Project; the Big Five National Park Project; the Industrial Parks Development Project and the Mpakeni Urban Infrastructure Development Project.
Other speakers at the event were the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade Manqoba Khumalo; the World Bank Senior Private Sector Development Specialist Michael Ehst; Chairman of USA Distillers Joe Caldeira and the UNDP Regional Director for Africa Ahunna Eziakonwa.
Among the attendees was well-known music artist and businessman Wyclef Jean.