Swazi investment agency does more than cut red tape

SET UP ten years ago to make foreign
investment easier in the country, the Swaziland
Investment Promotion Authority does more
than cut bureaucratic red tape for new
businesses requiring tax clearance certificates,
work permits and a range of other documents
– though such red tape cutting is Sipa’s primary
function.
Sipa also publicises the kingdom’s
investment attractions and has presided over
a steady growth in the industrial and services
sectors since the late 1990s.
“Swaziland has a potential work force of
300 000 skilled and educated people. We are
a stable country, with a good infrastructure,”
said Zizwe Vilane, director of Foreign Direct
Investment.
To attract new businesses, government
has undertaken a factory shell construction
programme both in the central Matsapha
Industrial Estate, five kilometres west of the
commercial hub Manzini, and in the southern
Shiselweni Region.
The nation’s highway construction
programme, which has vastly expanded the
road network since the 1990s, is another selling
point for a landlocked country in need of quick
access to border posts.
Sipa also informs investors of the several
favourable trade agreements the kingdom
enjoys with the European Union, the US and
Asia.
“Swaziland may have a small domestic
market, but the country is strategically
positioned as
an entry point into the region, and is signatory
to a number of regional and international
market access agreements, which offer
investors entry into large markets. Historically,
companies have been locating here as a quicker
and cheaper way to access the South African
market,” said Vilane.