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ESWATINI’S ECONOMIC TURNAROUND STRATEGY

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MBABANE – The focus of Eswatini’s new government is to create an environment that is good for business.


Prime Minister (PM) Ambrose Dlamini has observed that the private sector has not been growing in this, which provided the main reason why the burden of employment had been carried by government. He said private sector should be generating revenue.


“I think our focus should be on how we expand the private sector. The contribution of corporate tax to overall revenue of the country is only about 10 per cent whereas in other countries it is around 50 per cent. We need to change that,” said Dlamini during the World Bank Ease of Doing Business workshop convened at the Happy Valley Hotel yesterday.


The PM said they would prioritise enforcing contracts, where the kingdom currently ranks 172 out of 190 countries in the Ease of Doing Business, getting electricity ranking (163), starting a business (159), dealing with construction permits ranking (107) and registering property (107). Eswatini has been regressing in the rankings collated by the World Bank from 108 in 2015 out of 190 countries, to 112 in 2018 and further sliding to 117 in the 2019 report.


This effectively meant Eswatini’s business environment continued to diminish on a yearly basis.


Assistance


Dlamini said with the assistance from the World Bank, a gap analysis study was done in June 2018, whose results showed rankings could be changed if the kingdom could concentrate on improving the above listed priority areas.


The PM disclosed that specific actions to be done included, but were not limited to, the appointment of a commercial bench and drafting of bench rules, establishment of small claims courts and a legislative framework to limit adjournments.


Dlamini said they would also establish a one-stop shop entity to fast-track starting a business and to do a comprehensive legislative review to identify, mordenise and align with international best practices by drafting amendments to some pieces of legislation that present impediments  on ease of doing business.
“We call upon our development partners to help us drive this programme forward,” Dlamini pleaded.

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