Looking for local solutions to job-creation

Landlocked Swaziland's economy may be small, but it has the potential to generate millions of dollars for aspiring local entrepreneurs, according to a report by the Swaziland Investment Promotion Authority (SIPA). The agency, set up in 1997 to facilitate direct foreign investment, has recently taken on the goal of alleviating poverty in Swaziland, where two-thirds of the approximately one million population live on less than a dollar a day. A medley of investment options are identified in the SIPA guide, from a US$2.8 million cableway to transport tourists across the scenic mountains of the northern Hhohho region, expected to reap profits in four years, to a $3.5 million cultivation scheme to produce cut roses for markets in the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the United States, which could become profitable in 10 years. "Along the way, local investors will assist their fellow Swazis by providing jobs. The employment prospects for the cut roses initiative is a few hundred, but that would rise as the business grows," said Sizwe Dlamini, a SIPA investment promotion officer. The government wants small-scale farmers to consider cultivating baby vegetables for markets in the Middle East and Europe as part of a project with an undisclosed price tag. "For years, a lot of farmers have been growing maize at a loss instead of looking at other options. If sugar cane farmers could plant other crops, the imminent change in the price of sugar cannot severely affect them," Prime Minister Themba Dlamini noted at a meeting with small-scale entrepreneurs this week. A price subsidy by the European Union (EU), which purchases one-third of production, made sugar Swaziland's top export earner, but the industry went into a slump when the EU slashed sugar prices by 37 percent last year, throwing thousands out of work. Dlamini said empowering local investors could offset a decline in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country. Increasing FDI is the cornerstone of government's goal of poverty alleviation through job creation. The national unemployment rate dropped from 45 percent to 40 percent three years ago, when garment manufacturers arrived to take advantage of the preferential trade benefits offered to Swaziland by the US under the African Growth and Opportunities Act, but has again risen above 45 percent. Last year manufacturers were hard-hit by the termination of the Multi-Fibre Agreement (MFA), introduced 30 years ago to protect the textile industries of developed countries by imposing quotas on high-volume producers such as China, who had circumvented the stipulations of the agreement by setting up factories in Southern Africa. As a result, many downsized or closed shop, including those in Swaziland, costing thousands their jobs. "It is against this background that government is motivating the nation at grassroots level to become entrepreneurs. We need to develop the culture of entrepreneurship in our communities," Dlamini said. Musa Hlope, former chairman of the Federation of Swaziland Employers and Swaziland Chamber of Commerce, urged government to invest in capacity building programmes for indigenous Swazi business people. "A businessman does not come from nothing," said Hlope. "He or she has to learn the rules of successful business, and be brought up in a business culture; they need mentoring, not just capital."