BY DELISA THWALA
MBABANE– Honourable Senator Thulisile Dladla, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has shared mutual appreciation with Secretary-General of the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA).
This took place at the COMESA Headquarters in Lusaka, Zambia where Dladla paid a courtesy call on Her Excellency, Chileshe Mpundu Kapwepwe.
During their discussions, many matters of mutual concern were discussed. This included the mutual appreciation of the many projects that have impacted positively on Emaswati.
Noteworthy amongst these was the construction of the Inhlanganisela YaboMake Trade Hub, a modern and multi-purpose trading hub in Manzini, that was built on land donated for this purpose by Her Majesty, the Indlovukazi.
Dladla further extended an invitation to Hon. Kapwepwe for the handover ceremony of the Trade Hub to Eswatini’s Government.
The Senator mentioned that there was also the construction of Mpakeni Dam where COMESA and the European Union partnered to construct an Earth Dam, installing irrigation, piping and a cold room and furthermore linking farmers to markets in collaboration with the Ministry of
Agriculture and Cooperatives.
“This created a complete value chain. His Majesty, King Mswati III had indicated his wish that the Mpakeni project model be replicated in all of the four regions of Eswatini,” said the Minister.
In addition Dladla said other programs supported through this funding, included the strengthening of the free trade area, the customs union, resolution of non-tariff barriers, harmonisation of standards, trade in services, investment, competition policies transport and trade facilitation policies.
The Honourable Minister citing rising unemployment in the face of a rapidly increasing youth population made an appeal to COMESA to assist in addressing this matter.
Noting the heavy investment made by the Government through the establishment of the Youth Fund, she indicated that the Government would therefore appreciate any projects that strengthen this initiative, perhaps even linking them to supply opportunities within the country’s free trade area under COMESA and incentivising them in terms of becoming self-sufficient.
Meanwhile Honourable Kapwepwe responded by acknowledging the issues faced by Africa in creating
opportunities for the Youth to empower themselves. She indicated that, under the Gender Unit there was a strong youth empowerment component that COMESA was willing to work with Eswatini to help alleviate the challenges in this area.
She further expressed her thanks to His Majesty, King Mswati III and Her Majesty the Indlovukazi for the support given to COMESA and furthermore, accepted the invitation to attend the handover ceremony once the date was finalised.
She indicated that she was looking forward to welcoming the delegation of the Kingdom of Eswatini to the upcoming COMESA Summit in June where further discussions would be held on matters of mutual interest.
