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MBABANE – Ministers of Industry, Commerce and Trade have approved competition and investment policies.

This took place during the 36th Ordinary Session of the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

In an interview with EBIS yesterday, the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Trade, Manqoba Khumalo, said the two policies approved were of importance to Eswatini as well as other African countries.

Minister Khumalo said the first preparatory meeting towards the 36th Ordinary Session of the African Union (AU) was held in Botswana on February 10, 2023.

He said Prime Minister Cleopas Dlamini was also in Ethiopia where he attended a meeting under the acceleration of the continental free trade.

Discussing

He said basically, they were discussing that African countries must start trading without restrictions.

Khumalo then said it was also important for trade ministers to give their proposals to the leaders that would look at them by approving and adopting them.

“As South African Customs Union (SACU), currently Chaired by His Majesty King Mswati III, we managed to, as SACU, get rid of the tariff order and come to an agreement on the kind of products that will be sold across Africa from us and vice versa,” said Khumalo.

He mentioned that the competition policy would look at how they traded freely without any restriction.

He added that they would be looking at the strategies to be implemented to ensure that there was fairness in the trading process.

Challenging

“We don’t want problems where you will find a certain country challenging another over the products. Eswatini is now also a Competition Act, as is the case in other African States. We will then teach those in the private sector on how to control any uncompetitive behavior while trading in Africa,” he said.

Khumalo said the investment policy would assist small scale business owners across Africa by ensuring funds were made available for them, to help them manufacture high quality products to meet trade standard.

“This policy was looking at how we are going promote African businesses by getting the required funds. It will help African business people not to be left behind in as far as trading is concerned,” said the minister.