By Khulile Thwala
The Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade Manqoba Khumalo has expressed his excitement about the National Budget Speech which was presented by Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg on Friday in Parliament.
In an interview with the publication, the minister said he was excited about the fact that the speech spoke to growing the economy, sustaining the growth that the country has seen as well as the significant allocation for youth programmes.
Read More: Live-Blog: Budget Speech 2023
He further highlighted his enthusiasm for the budget allocation for factory shells and the fact that the Sidvokodvo Industrial Park was being fingered for development. In this budget, the government has provided E171 million for the construction of factory shells.
“I am really excited about the fact that allocation for youth programmes has grown significantly which means that young people will be able to access funding a lot more, particularly loan guarantee schemes that have been increased to about five times,” said the minister.
Read More: 14% increase in National Budget
He strongly urged young people and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to take advantage of these allocations because there is a lot of money available and it is no longer an issue of unavailability of funding but the ability to deposit credible business plans, which the funders will willingly support.
Khumalo said this was a winning budget speech and he believed that the Kingdom’s economy would continue to improve. To attract investment and strengthen value addition, the Minister of Finance, Rijkenberg said the government will reinvigorate the development of the Sidvokodvo Industrial Estate of 310 hectares, which will alleviate the shortage of industrial land for investors and create employment for emaSwati.
This initiative is anticipated to create 600 jobs during the initial phase of the construction and 4 000 jobs in the second year.
