Take up manufacturing space – Minister Khumalo
By Delisa Magagula
The Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade Manqoba Khumalo has urged the entrepreneurs to take up the manufacturing industry to avoid importing services.
He said local entrepreneurs have the potential to create and circulate the economy within the country.
Khumalo was speaking during the Industrial Finance seminar hosted by Eswatini National Industrial Development Corporation (ENIDC) at Eswatini International Trade Fair on Monday.
The event was attended by captains of industry, business people, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), private sector representatives and more.
Different speakers presented on the role of the industrial development finance in unlocking economic growth and employment creation in the country.
He noted that ENIDC was an organisation that also develops some of the best leaders this country has ever seen.
The minister noted that the manufacturing industry contributed 38% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), hence the country being ranked high in the industrialisation index.
He also noted that the mining sector contributed less than 2% which he said was a shame given the country’s richness of the resources.
Khumalo said there was an amazing opportunity not only to grow other sectors of the economy, but also to industrialise which could be more beneficial of minerals in the country.
“Agriculture, if you include forestry and citrus and other things stands at roughly 13%, mostly sugar cane. ENIDC as an organisation therefore exists to ensure the role of government in promoting the underserved sectors of the economy, beneficiation and agro-processing the various raw materials that we have in agriculture and mining, forestry and other things.
We challenge all of us to think about the next level because those before us have done what they have done to lend us where we are.
What is key is to ensure that unemployment problem but also puts this country on a sustainable path to wealth class as Their Majesties have commanded.
My desire is that we have Caucasian culture where industrialisation is truly embraced because it is very difficult to find a black-owned, Eswatini-owned industrial company in Eswatini,” he said.
