Eswatini’s cargo transporters – air, rail and road – as well as freight forwarders and warehouse lessors are excited by the prospect of Taiwan relocating its business interests, including manufacturing concerns, from South Africa to their country.
There is wide consensus that the small, landlocked nation’s limited resources will be offset by a winning advantage as Africa’s only country to still maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
“My company hauls cargo for Taiwanese companies in South Africa,” said the manager of a road freight firm based at the Matsapha Industrial Estate, halfway between Mbabane and the commercial hub of Manzini, who prefers to remain anonymous.
The manager said the company moves especially Taiwanese goods and exports to Eswatini.
The relocation of factories owned by business interests from the Republic of China to Eswatini “will open the biggest new opportunity for our freight industry since apartheid”, the manager added.
In the 1980s, several multinational companies moved out of South Africa to avoid apartheid-era sanctions and relocated to what was then still officially Swaziland.
When sanctions were lifted in the 1990s, many of these firms returned to South Africa. The doldrums that resulted in Eswatini’s industrial sector were mitigated by the African Growth and Opportunities Act (Agoa) – US trade policy allowing Swazi products duty- and quota-free access to the American market.
Taiwan rushed in to build garment factories to make products for American buyers under the Agoa treaty.
In addition to Eswatini, only 10 countries and the Vatican still recognise Taiwan. The People’s Republic of China made the establishment of relations with other countries contingent on severing ties with Taiwan.
South Africa, as the African anchor of BRICS, is particularly sensitive to the wishes of China, a founding member of what has since become BRICS+.
In October 2024, South Africa’s foreign ministry asked Taiwan to vacate its Pretoria “liaison office” or embassy when South Africa cut ties with Taiwan in 1997. In May, Pretoria doubled down by forcing the facility’s relocation to Johannesburg and its rebranding as a “trade office”.
Almost simultaneously, Eswatini’s Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade hosted a meeting between Taiwanese trade officials and Business Eswatini (a group of local industrialists and business chiefs).
Several Taiwanese-owned businesses in South Africa and elsewhere in Southern Africa were reportedly willing to relocate to Eswatini, assuming it could seize the opportunity by expediting the needed infrastructure and permits.
“If concrete plans are not in place timeously, these investors will start to look elsewhere,” a Taiwanese official reportedly told the Swazi delegation.
By 4 June 2024, the focus had become a centralised area where all Taiwanese businesses could concentrate. Eswatini’s commerce minister announced: “The Kingdom of Eswatini today signed a landmark agreement to establish an exclusive Taiwanese Industrial Park, marking a significant milestone in the growing partnership between Eswatini and Taiwan.”
Taiwanese firms currently operating in the country use all modes of transportation to import manufacturing inputs and to send out their finished goods. Sources in the freight industry say it is likely that South African transporters will be involved in the factory relocations.
