‘ESWATINI NEEDS URGENT GLOBAL ECONOMIC SUPPORT’

MBABANE – SARFED is making a call to Africa and international institutions to support the competitiveness of the country despite the civil unrest that has been reported.

The Southern African Research Foundation for Economic Development (SARFED) felt Eswatini’s economic position was playing a vital role not only in the Southern Africa region, but at African Union level as well. “This is because the country like any other African states subscribed to the African Union development agenda of 2063 whose first implementation was to be reviewed in 2023,” said SARFED Regional Coordinator George Choongwa.  

Country

Choongwa said Eswatini needed the support because the country scored recommendable results in various sustainable development agendas for both regional and global attainment such as leading in malaria elimination and improvement in infrastructure development. “The country’s National Development Strategy of 1999 had scored massive developments, some of which included the national infrastructure development such as improved road network, telecommunications services, tourism, improvement in the health care services, rural development programmes, as well as the improvement of the investment climate for both local and internal investors,” said Choongwa. SARFED said the Southern African Development Community (SADC) fact finding mission for Eswatini should motivate regional as well as international economic support for the country. “At regional level, the African Union should be active in ensuring that the country’s economy remained sustainable and competitive. “Therefore, essential activities such as  supply chain of essential commodities to Eswatini should be considered as a regional priority to ensure that the country doesn’t experience market failure due to economic disintegration,” said SARFED.

Prioritise

Choongwa further made a call to SADC and AU to prioritise investor confidence and fiscal balance in the country. He said the intervention of SADC - Troika to the Eswatini civil unrest has been perceived as being timely whose results to the commission of enquiry also has potential to boost the country’s investor confidence and support from the rest of development institutions both regionally such as the  Southern African Customs Union, Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa) AU and internationally in general. The civil unrest the country underwent during the period of June, 2021 which resulted in national riots and destruction of both private and public property, has potentially put the country on both short and long term social economic challenge of which both national and regional development organisations should aim to address sustainably as  a way of resuscitating  the investor confidence of the country.

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