Growth may be slower in Swaziland than in other SADC member states – about 2% GDP growth expected this year – but slow growth is not the same as no growth or negative growth, champions of the country’s investment opportunities assert. Swaziland’s liabilities – its small size, landlocked status, poverty and AIDS epidemic – have a counterbalance in a generally favourable business climate and close links with SA. Those links include road and rail infrastructure, both of which continue to improve. The aggressive upgrading of a national highway system begun in the mid- 1990s sees new extensions each year, with a critical link connecting the Oshoek border post with the Matsapha Industrial Estate to be operational in 2009. A controversial airport under construction in the rural hinterland will also see service in the year ahead, offering the potential for expanded airfreight capacity in the country. A rail link to Gauteng is a perennial desire for shippers, and has received additional urgency this year in the wake of escalating fuel prices. Trade figures underscore Swaziland’s symbiotic relationship with SA, which surrounds the nation but for a sliver over the north-eastern border with Mozambique. Up to 90% of imports originate in SA, including all petroleum products, though experiments by the big sugar plantations in the eastern lowveld to produce ethanol from sugar cane offer the first real alternative to that dependency, no matter how small originally. Up to 70% of Swazi exports are absorbed by the SA economy. Road freight largely moves these goods. Rail handles all the coal excavated in the country, and sends it to SA via Komatipoort. The rail line to Durban brings in industrial inputs and takes out finished garments for export. Everything else, from wood pulp to oranges, soft drink concentrates to bulk sugar that constitute the country’s main products, goes by road. This explains government’s ongoing emphasis on highway construction.
