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E1.3BN INVESTMENTS INTO ESWATINI TAKING SHAPE

21/11/2019 01:02:00 BY KWANELE DHLADHLA

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MBABANE – The eight investment companies which were unveiled in May this year; whose investment value was at over E1.3 billion have come to fruition.

Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini yesterday informed editors that they were very excited with the level of confidence that investors had shown in the Kingdom of Eswatini over the past year. He mentioned that to date, government had created an estimated 7 000 direct jobs and a sizeable number of indirect employment through investments from multinational companies such as Kellogg’s, Jonsson Workwear and TRIOMF Fertiliser, among others.

The PM disclosed that there were other prospective interests that government was currently following based on the country’s mission across Africa and the rest of the world.

“The investors include investors in the area of energy, mining, ICT, agriculture and agro-processing and aviation. Africa Gold and Crowne Aerospace are some of the prospective investors currently under government’s Radar,” said Dlamini.

Retrogressed

Eswatini might have retrogressed four places in the World Bank Ease of Doing Business 2020 report but the overall score improved. Improved from 57.8 per cent overall score in 2019, the country improved to 59.5 per cent in the 2020 issue released yesterday.
In the Ease of Doing Business Report, which is one of the yardsticks used by investors in measuring the conduciveness of a country’s business environment, Eswatini improved from the 57.8 per cent overall score of 2019 to 59.5 per cent in the 2020 issue.

The report reflected that the kingdom was ranked 121 out of 190 countries.Out of the core pillars used by the World Bank in determining ease of doing business, the kingdom maintained its top spot in Africa on trading across borders.

The country further improved in starting a business - from 159 in 2019 to 155 in 2020, dealing with construction permits – from 107 in 2019 to 96 in 2020, registering property – from 107 in 2019 to 104 in 2020 and getting electricity – from 163 in 2019 to 132 in 2020. It should be mentioned that the World Bank reported is regarded as the best measurement by most investors.