BY PHUMELELE MKHONTA
MBABANE– The great meet!
This was earlier today at Royal Villas in Ezulwini, where the South African High Commission and Eswatini leading Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) met to deliberate on business prospects.
The Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade Manqoba Khumalo, who was present during the meeting, said a lot of opportunities were yet to be realised regarding trade between the Kingdom of Eswatini and the Republic of South Africa.
Khumalo, who also doubles as a Senator, said theirs was a trade relationship that was complementary, and from which both sides benefit.
“We have worked together for many years‚ and together accomplished many things and this in itself is a positive outcome. Yet, there remain many opportunities yet to be realised especially with the free movement of funds as we are in the same common monetary area.”
“We have emaSwati who live in South Africa and vice versa. This makes our two countries ideal partners to build on these links to foster our mutual prosperity- both catalysing Eswatini’s economic transformation and providing South African business with the opportunity to invest in and partner with some of the most exciting companies and entrepreneurs in Eswatini enhancing trade and investment opportunities and relations between Eswatini and South Africa.”
He further said the two Governments should take real, practical steps to achieve this – working in partnership to stimulate investment, improving ease of doing business, breaking down barriers to trade, mobilising their own domestic resources, and to support their vision of boosting economic growth through investment and trade.
“We can build further on this shared agenda with an Eswatini-South Africa Investment Summit that can be hosted in both countries.
“South Africa continues to be Eswatini’s major trading partner for both imports and exports. Both governments need to work together to ensure seamless movement of goods and services across our ports of entry, especially the Ngwenya/Oshoek border post. We both must work tirelessly to remove technical and non-technical barriers to trade,” said Khumalo.
South African High Commissioner Advocate Thoko Sipamla said both the South African and Eswatini economies were benefitting from growing trade between our two countries. Eswatini is currently exporting almost 70 per cent of its goods and services to South Africa, saying this reflected an amount of E21.732 billion for the 2021/22 fiscal year – an increase of 16.6 per cent over the 202/21 financial year.
