BY KING’S OFFICE CORRESPONDENTS
TAIPEI, TAIWAN – Commerce, Industry and Trade Minister Manqoba Khumalo witnessed the signing of a cooperative agreement between Eswatini Investment Promotion Authority (EIPA) with its Taiwanese partner, International Integrated Systems Incorporate (IISI) here on Wednesday afternoon.
The signing of the agreement follows Tuesday signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the minister and his counterpart in the presence of His Majesty the King and Republic of China (Taiwan) President Lai Ching-te which seek to advance the country’s business digitalisation project.
Signing the cooperative agreement was EIPA CEO Sibane Mngometulu and IISI Vice President Andy Lee.
IISI is a Government and Enterprise Aplication department established about 30 years ago.
Mngometulu explained that what they were signing was an implementing agency agreement following the government to government agreement signed by Minister Khumalo on Tuesday.
“As the implementing agency for government digitalisation project we are looking at taking our platform “Buy Eswatini” where we currently post on the Website products by local businesses in virtual platform to buy and sell to their counterparts here in Taiwan.
“We are looking at enhancing the digital platform and ensure ease of transaction and really up our game in the business of moving goods and services by developing an application (App) where our counterparts will assist its to develop it,” he said.
He said they were very excited as EIPA to entering into such an agreement with their counterparts.
In response, IISI Vice President Lee said they were happy to have signed the cooperative agreement with EIPA.
“We have in the past assisted the Kingdom of Eswatini through their government in developing its information technology projects like the Data Centre in providing consultancy work. This time we are very happy to continue to support Eswatini to develop an e-commerce platform. They will also assist the Kingdom in training 30 ICT students and 30 SMEs around the platform,” he said.
Lee said they are looking forward in building strong relations with the Kingdom in the near future.
Also witnessing the signing of the agreement were EIPA Investment Promotion Manager Fanele Mashwama and IISI CEO and Project Manager David Fu, who said he has just returned from Eswatini and was impressed with the progress made in broadband connectivity.
