BY ANDREW DLAMINI
MBABANE – Minister of Commerce Manqoba Khumalo has today unveiled Timothy McPherson, as a new investor in the Kingdom of Eswatini.
McPherson is the Chairman of ECO-6.
ECO-6 is an abbreviation for Economic Community of States, Nations, and Territories and Realms of the African Diaspora Sixth Region.
In fact, the Treaty establishing ECO-6 was ratified by its member states on August 1, 2019, and functions as an institution that allows for the African Diaspora community to meaningfully.
It is reported that ECO-6 seeks to make the Diaspora the most important trading partner for Africa, with a view towards poverty eradication through African industrialization and internal trade.
When unveiling McPherson at EIPA offices, Minister Khumalo expressed his enthusiasm for the new collaboration, emphasizing its potential impact on Eswatini’s economy and the broader African diaspora.
“We are extremely pleased this morning to introduce to you and the nation a new economic partnership between the Kingdom of Eswatini and the Economic Community of the African diaspora called ECO-6. This organization has been formed by members of the African diaspora, whose ancestors were taken away as slaves from African kingdoms more than 400 years ago, and they were dispersed across many territories in Latin America, the Caribbean, Northern America and Europe,” he said.
He continued: “The journey of ECO-6 to Eswatini began in 2019, but due to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, their plans were temporarily delayed. However, during His Majesty the King’s recent trip to the United Nations in New York, representatives of ECO-6 met with him and were encouraged to return to Eswatini to explore opportunities for collaboration,”
The minister stated that after weeks of successful engagement with various stakeholders and attending key events, ECO-6 confirmed their decision to set up their base in Eswatini.
He disclosed that the organization has already registered a company in the country and plans to outline its program of action in the coming New Year.
Meanwhile, McPherson expressed his gratitude to His Majesty King Mswati III for understanding and supporting ECO-6’s desire to establish a permanent address on the African continent.
“The Economic Community of the African diaspora, ECO-6 is pleased to announce to its members and friends through the international community that the African diaspora now has a home once again on the continent of Africa. We graciously thank His Majesty King Mswati III for understanding the desire and the request of ECO-6 to not only have the diaspora do business with Africa, like all other third-party institutions, but to also have a deeper commitment of return towards the African diaspora through the establishment of a permanent address on this great continent, our ancestral lands,” he said.
McPherson stated that in choosing Eswatini as their home, ECO-6 aims to integrate the institutions of their regional Economic Community within the African continent.
He referred to this decision as ‘Sankofa,’ a cultural term meaning turning to the past to capture something that has been forgotten.
He said ECO-6 intends to work closely with the government of Eswatini to further its goals of synergy building, knowledge transfer, industrialization, poverty eradication, cultural exchange, and sustainable development.
The international community, as expressed through the United Nations resolution on the International Decade for People of African descent, has shown recognition and support for the diaspora’s return to the continent.
“ECO-6 sees its new home in Eswatini as not only a landmark gesture by a modern African country but also a great vindication for past generations of the African diaspora. As ECO-6 now begins to orientate our regional economic constituency of the African diaspora throughout Europe, the Americas, the Caribbean, and around the world towards our new home, we applaud the Kingdom of Eswatini for having successfully preserved the dignity, Culture, and image of our African ancestors and we look forward to working with the Kingdom in this new era of cooperation between Africa and the global diaspora” said McPherson.
