BY PHUMELELE MKHONTA
MBABANE– Cultivating more investments for Eswatini!
This is His Majesty King Mswati III, the Eswatini Head of State, who continues to market the country to potential investors internationally in a bid to attract more Foreign Direct Investment into the country. This time, His Majesty has addressed an Eswatini-Dubai investment seminar at United Arab Emirates (UAE) yesterday.
This is according to information dispersed by Eswatini Government online platforms.
At the seminar, a Dubai-based company, VISTA Group, expressed desire to open a university in Eswatini focusing on STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education. Also, the Royal Jet Company, which deals with the leasing of private jets, announced that they were returning to the Kingdom to fly jets and impart aviation skills to emaSwati.
The King said he invites the potential investors to visit Eswatini to see for themselves the opportunities the country had, some of which are outlined in the ‘Post COVID-19 Economic Recovery Plan’ that was developed by government.
“We need to diversify the products (we export to the UAE) and increase the volume of trade between our two countries, and we call for priority to be given to changing the trade balance to be more favourable for Eswatini.
“Our Government is working hard to create a dynamic and enabling business environment that will promote greater productive investment in our economy. It is within this context that we have embarked on this visit to the Emirates to convey the message that Eswatini is open for investment,” said the King.
In the meantime, VISTA GROUP Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Neeraj Varyani said they were seriously looking at setting up Academic City in Eswatini, saying the country had access to 300 million people in their country and surrounding areas, with phenomenal infrastructure.
“Eswatini has probably the most bilateral trade agreements than any other African country,” stressed Varyani.
Royal Jet Chief Executive Officer Mohammed Husain Ahmed mentioned that in the near future, they would visit Eswatini, where they would also talk about aircraft maintenance services, training of airport support staff, managing lounges, among others.
“Over the years, we have received a lot of help from other companies to develop our business, and we now believe we should share our experience in the aviation sector with others,” said the Royal Jet head.
Among the speakers was Infra International DMCC MD Ujjwal Goel who shared a testimonial, saying they have had a lot of positive learning.
“The country is committed to quality and delivering on set timelines from the get go. Eswatini offers a very strong economic framework, which improves the ease of doing business.”
According to Eswatini Government, among other things, His Majesty also told potential investors about the recent geophysical survey that was conducted in the country, identifying mineral deposits of gold, diamond, iron-ore and copper-nickel-platinum group elements in the north-western part of the country.
