DOING BUSINESS GETTING MORE EXPENSIVE

EZULWINI – The Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade, Manqoba Khumalo, has acknowledged the concerns about how doing business is getting more expensive in the country.   

Khumalo was speaking during the strategic development brief meeting with legislative committees held at the Cooperative College of Eswatini (CODEC) yesterday. The minister said the Government of Eswatini was working tirelessly to support businesses, and he further assured Members of Parliament (MPs) that they would continue to monitor the situation closely and step up their support if necessary; “Eswatini is open for business,” said the minister. Khumalo said while there were headwinds, there were also many exciting developments in key sectors across the economy. He said to position themselves for growth and seize these opportunities, they must continue to invest in fundamentals, and build up strong capabilities in enterprises and the people.

Support

He said they have already commenced the implementation of the relevant legislations that would support the citizens of this country and also to attain import substitution and increase the country’s exports.“We would like thank members of both houses with the continuous support that has been shown in the process of enacting these legislative frameworks,” he said. He further appealed for a continued support during the review of the Competition Bill, the National Trade Administration Bill and the Eswatini Investment Promotion Authority Act, which shall soon be presented in the Parliament chambers.

He further requested Parliament to fast-track the process of debating and passing the draft Companies Bill, once it has been tabled in Parliament.
He said on the same token of improving the country’s business environment, the ministry was also cognisant of other Bills that were with other sectors that shall request reviews and amendments. He said the ministry appeals for the MPs’ input and support on these Bills in order to eradicate the bottlenecks on businesses. Khumalo highlighted that with the tremendous support received from members of Parliament in the previous term, the Citizens Economic Empowerment Act No. 18 of 2023 was passed and has now been enacted.

He added that the micro, small and medium enterprises remained the backbone of economic growth and poverty alleviation through job creation. He said the Act seeks to empower emaSwati-owned enterprises through various economic empowerment measures, such as preferential procurement, which would be accompanied by sector codes which ensured that manufacturing of goods for domestic consumption was done locally as opposed to importation.

Skills

He added that they were also seeing the skills mismatch in the industry. He said government was convinced that the special economic zones would definitely attract industries that would build capacity in the youth and increase the productivity of all emaSwati. He mentioned that he was aware of the concerns about the longer-term development of this country. “We need a collective vision for the economy –which will outline our ambition, provide direction and coordinate actions across the key pillars of our economy,” he said.

He said these efforts would put industries, enterprises and workers on a firmer footing for long-term, sustainable growth. He said for his ministry, these should touch on services, manufacturing, trade and enterprises. He added that there was definitely a need to diversify this economy and support the locals through the circular economy flow model, which is the country’s confined potential. “As long as we continue to stand together as one, as we have done through the pandemic, the unrest and look upon the future with a spirit of enterprise and discovery, I have every confidence that we will make progress towards building a future economy that will meet the aspirations of our workers and companies, and inspire generations of Eswatini to come,” he said.

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