ONE-STOP-SHOP TO ADDRESS INVESTORS’ CONCERNS

MBABANE - The expected design and implementation of a one-stop-shop for Eswatini is crucial for expedited approval formalities for all applications submitted by investors.

The one-stop-shop service facility involves streamlining and consolidating approval formalities for investors under one roof, currently being discharged by various government entities.
This aims to ensure that business licensing functions, such as business registration, trading licences and permit applications, among other functions, are offered by a single interministerial and inter-agency entity under one roof and are offered expeditiously to investors.

Best

Speaking during the consultative workshop hosted by the Eswatini Investment Promotion Authority (EIPA), Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade Siboniso Nkambule said the technical assistance that the government has received from the European Union (EU) through the International Trade Centre (ITC), to design and recommend a best practice for a one-stop-shop service facility for Eswatini has come at the right time for government. Nkambule was represented by the Under Secretary from the ministry Cebile Nhlabatsi. Nkambule said as part of the consultations, Eswatini has been challenged as a member state of the World Trade Organisation to consider being party to the new chapter in the WTO agreement, ‘Investment Facilitation for Development agreement’, which will be covered during the course of the workshop. He said for a long time until now, they faced intermittent feedback from the business and investor community that bureaucratic hurdles, unnecessary delays in processing investor applications were some of the germane and typical challenges within the business environment.

Workshop

Nkambule noted this consultative workshop seeks to gather views and express best practices towards the design and implementation of a one-stop service facility to better serve the local business community. The PS said one of the common practices of a one-stop-shop was having all key regulatory and administrative departments and agencies housed in a single location to provide an integrated service to investors, therefore, providing a comprehensive, convenient, professional service for setting up a business. He said on another note, the one -stop-shop would cut the need for businesses to ‘run from door-to-door begging for help’. Typically, within a one-stop-shop, an investor makes an appointment with the relevant government representative at the one-stop-shop either physically or online and gets the needed service expeditiously.

Nkambule added that the constituency of services within the one-stop included the issuance of permits, licences and registrations with respect to water or electricity services, tax issues and licensing all under one roof or a single online window. “As you can imagine, the integrated service under a single entity will undoubtedly cut-off the red tape,” said the PS. He mentioned that the Eswatini Investment Promotion Act did mandate EIPA to operate a one-stop shop service facility to investors. He said they believed that with the technical assistance and through the investment and trade promotion act that was currently being reviewed, EIPA would be able to operationalise the service for investors. He said as a Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade, they were excited to host ICT this week and looked forward to the report that would be reflective of an inclusive stakeholder consultation.

Solutions

Meanwhile, EIPA Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sibani Mngomezulu said the one-stop service facility was one of the preferred solutions to overcome the usual bureaucratic inertia often experienced in the public sector in service delivery. He noted that by its design, the conception and ultimate delivery of the one-stop shop service facility touches on the margins of a range of stakeholders who were responsible for approving mandatory documents for businesses to operate in Eswatini. He said these were not limited to company formations, licensing and works permits, including the connection of utilities under one roof. “Our gathering here today is important to have in brief, highlights of the strategic imperatives of a functional one-stop service facility,” Mngomezulu said.

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