A small nation with a huge potential, Eswatini is empowering itself by reclaiming its name, rooting itself in its rich heritage and ensuring its ambitious NDS catapults it towards a first-rate future.
The seed for change is always embedded within a vision, and this is true of King Mswati III’s Vision 2022. Revolving around the idea of rapidly accelerating development and progress in Eswatini, Vision 2022 aims to harness its diverse and rich resources, concentrating on sectors such as agriculture, tourism, information, communication and technology, in order to guarantee the nation emerges on the international stage as a first-world nation by 2022. According to King Mswati III: “The Vision’s main objective is to improve the standard of living for all our people through access to quality services, wealth creation and employment opportunities.”
With the recent appointment of Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini as Prime Minister, and the announcement of a new cabinet in November 2018, the emphasis upon a governmental private sector mindset has firmly aligned the country’s direction to radical change and progress whereby, efficiency, an awareness of time and cost and workforce productivity are defining factors in policy-making and reforms.
Intent on providing an innovative enabling business environment in order to increase the ease of doing business for investors, the new administration is also concerned with growing and supporting SMEs. Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade Hon. Manqoba Khumalo, explains: “We need to focus on the issue of registration of a new business and we are bringing digitalisation into the process, using a digital platform to re-engineer the process and make sure it’s a one-stop shop for investors that is transparent, easy, and time-saving.”
Ultimately though, Vision 2022 is about encouraging change and productively shifting the perspective of the nation’s highly educated workforce concerning development. “His Majesty the King is asking us to look at things differently,” affirms Zakhele Lukhele, MD of Eswatini Bank. “We are moving towards the objective of being a developed state which is a technological world.”
Embarking on a number of initiatives, such as the construction and launch of the Royal Science and Technology Park and building trade and touristic routes, such as railway tracks, the King Mswati III International Airport and new highways, opportunities are quite literally expanding but, according to Prime Minister Dlamini, “peace and stability is the main glue that holds us together as a nation and has allowed business to flourish.”
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