Times Of Swaziland: INVEST IN AFCFTA’S E20 TRILLION MARKET POTENTIAL - HMK

INVEST IN AFCFTA’S E20 TRILLION MARKET POTENTIAL - HMK
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King's Office Correspondents on 06/06/2024 11:23:00


SEOUL, KOREA -  His Majesty King Mswati III has invited Republic of Korea
businesses to invest in Africa, using the Kingdom of Eswatini as its launch pad.
He said businesspeople can take advantage of the approximately E20 trillion (one
trillion US$) in Intra-Africa trade by next year, as a result of the African
Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). His Majesty the King, speaking
through Commerce, Industry and Trade Minister, Manqoba Khumalo, during the
Korea-Africa Business Summit here, said Eswatini offers a predictable investment
climate with a highly skilled labour force.
Manufacturing
His Majesty said the manufacturing and agricultural sectors will experience the
biggest gains from the liberalisation of goods. “This offers prospects for
agriculture, including agro-processing, automotive, textiles, clothing, leather
products and other value-adding economic activities in Eswatini.“At full
implementation, Africa’s manufacturing sector has the potential to reach one
trillion US$ (E20 trillion) in 2025, creating 14 million stable jobs. The King
said he has no doubt that AfCFTA will bring the required impetus to the
promotion of trade among African countries.“It will also provide African
countries, including Eswatini, with a huge market share of 1.3 billion people
and a wide market access of 3.1 billion US Dollars  (approximately E60 billion).
“We believe that it has the potential for broader and deeper economic
integration and would attract investment, boost trade, including intra-African
trade, provide better jobs, reduce poverty, and increase shared prosperity in
Africa,” he said. His Majesty the King said the vision is a good augmentation
of the job creation drive to alleviate the scourge of youth unemployment within
the continent. The King said in the short to medium term, Eswatini’s ambitions
are to focus on specific sectors, in which investors from Korea and abroad can
take advantage, which include manufacturing and agriculture-processing,
agriculture, energy, mining, tourism, education and ICT. “We believe that
these sectors have great potential for advancing our economic growth and
creating jobs for emaSwati. They are in line with our regional integration
agenda with a concurrent focus on liberalising trade in services, as these are
the backbone of the markets,” the King said.