Prime Minister Cleopas Dlamini yesterday signed out with a positive report card, highlighting their achievements during their term of office.
The premier, when delivering a synopsis of the out-going Cabinet’s success and achievements covering the period of 2018 to 2023, said from today he would be an ordinary citizen.
Dlamini said the past five years had been a bitter-sweet experience but there were many milestones they achieved regardless of the challenges, hence not being able to deliver 100 per cent in some areas due to fiscal challenges,COVID-19, social unrests and the on-going Russia-Ukraine war.
He also noted the loss of fellow Cabinet members; the late PM Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini, Makhosi Vilakati, Christian Ntshangase and Peter Bhembe.
He also sympathised with other Emaswati who lost their lives during COVID-19 and the June 2021 social unrest.
Among their achievements, the prime minister noted the creation of over 53 000 jobs, rehabilitation of roads, education infrastructure, agriculture funds, income generating projects through Regional Development Fund, health, road infrastructure and more.
challenges
He highlighted the launch of the Strategic Roadmap 2019-2023 which sought to address the socio-economic challenges faced by the nation at the time.
The roadmap aimed to deliver on the promise of making Eswatini a first world country, through among other things, sustainably growing the economy for the benefit of all who live in the country, having identified five key priority sectors, namely; mining and energy, information, communication and technology and education, tourism, agriculture as well as manufacturing and agro-processing.
“Notwithstanding, I am proud to say that we made significant strides towards achieving a number of our strategic goals. Government, in collaboration with the private sector, launched the Post-COVID-19 Economic Recovery Plan, which served as an economic impetus, which aimed to bring investments worth E30 billion into the economy,” said the prime minister.
He stated that due to some of the challenges, government had to take austerity measures in a bid to streamline government spending to be within the limited financial resources, among which was the hiring freeze of 2018.
“However, some of these measures had to be occasionally relaxed in sectors where the situation warranted, including health, education and security sectors,” he said.
The PM also noted that despite the many economic shocks that continuously constrained economic activity, the economy showed strong resilience, with the gross domestic product growth averaging 3.4 per cent in the period 2019-2023, improving from a growth of 1.7 per cent between 2014–2018.
completion
Adding, he hailed His Majesty King Mswati III for bringing foreign direct investments, as seen with new investments such as Kellogg’s Tolaram, Triomf Fertiliser, Mitra Eswatini, Lush Hair Care, the Royal Tirta Ayu Spa from Indonesia and Jonsson Workwear whose factory shell is near completion, among others.
He added that government created 53 114 jobs which came from Foreign direct investments (FDIs), 5 341 from expansions and 41 664 from Domestic Direct investments, after creating at 10 000 jobs per annum and to make Eswatini an export-driven economy.
He also noted construction of factory shells in three tinkhundla which are expected to create a combined over 4 000 job opportunities.
The PM stated that government continued to provide support to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in line with the MSME Policy establishing the E45m MSME Revolving Fund, the Informal Traders Revolving Fund, which was launched in the previous Cabinet implemented and rolled out while the Small Scale Loan Guarantee and Export Credit Guarantee schemes were recapitalised.
Loan Funding
With support from COMESA, he said government constructed the Manzini Trade Hub to provide decent shelter for informal traders that previously occupied the Manzini Satellite Bus Rank with full support of Her Majesty the Indlovukazi.
“The Youth Enterprise Revolving Fund (YERF) approved loan funding for 325 young people in the past five years, amounting to over E17m and creating over 1 000 jobs. Government also successfully launched the Eswatini Youth Empowerment Programme with UNDP and the Insika Yensha Youth Empowerment Programme with Taiwan, among other programmes,” he added.
The prime minister thanked Their Majesties for trusting them with such a mammoth task. “We would also like to thank the entire Eswatini nation, our diplomatic and development partners and all residents of the Kingdom of Eswatini for placing their hopes in us. It has been quite a challenging journey, but one in which we look back at with a sense of achievement.
The successes far outweigh the challenges,” he added.