Trade & Investment
Eswatini, one of Africa’s most stable countries, offers investors:
A sound investment climate –
- General Tax allowances
- Low corporate tax 27.5%
- Dividends interest and profits freely repatriated after withholding tax
- expropriation and nationalization prohibited
Competitive labour –
- educated and easily trainable labour force
- bilingual in English and siSwati
- high productivity
- available at competitive labour costs
- Subscribe in international labour laws (ILO)
Besides local market of about 1 million, Easy Access to Regional and International Markets
- Southern African Customs Union (SACU) – enlarging Eswatini’s market to nearly 50 million people in South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho and Namibia.
- Southern African Development Community (SADC) – twelve southern African countries with a market of over 130 million people.
- Common Market of East and Southern Africa (COMESA)- twenty African countries representing a market of over 230 million people.
- European Union (EU) – market of 370 million people and GDP equivalent to US$162.29 billion.
- Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA): add to the SADC and COMESA the East African Community (EAC), and the imminent TFTA will encompass a total of 26 member and /or partner states from the three blocs, with a combined population of 625-million potential consumers and a joint GDP of US$1.2-trillion. This will account for half of the membership of the African Union and 58 percent of the continent’s GDP, respectively.
- Access to the African Growth & Opportunity Act (AGOA)- Duty-free access to the U.S. market under the combined AGOA/GSP program stands at approximately 6,500 product tariff lines, including the tariff lines that were added by the AGOA legislation. Notably, these newly added “AGOA products” include items such as apparel and footwear, wine, certain motor vehicle components, a variety of agricultural products, chemicals, steel and many others.
Excellent Infrastructure
- Modern infrastructure
- Excellent telecommunication systems
- Good quality road, rail and air links to surrounding countries and beyond
- Matsapha Industrial Estate – dry port, centrally located to minimise time and cost using Durban Port, South Africa and Maputo Mozambique.
High Quality Life
- Health facilities at international standards
- Variety of internationally recognized educational and training institutions
- World class golf course and variety of sports facilities