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Prosper Ndlovu
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ZIMBABWE’s economic resilience and recovery from past development hurdles is a demonstration to the world that Africa can find and implement its own solutions to challenges it is facing, King Mswati III of the Kingdom of Eswatini, said yesterday.
Officially opening the 63rd edition of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) in Bulawayo, which ran under the theme:

“Transformative Innovation: Global Competitiveness”, the visiting Eswatini leader said progress being made by Zimbabwe, alongside other African nations, was a victory for the entire continent given the interlinkages among neighbouring regional economies.

“It is a great pleasure and an honour for me to be in Zimbabwe, one of the most resilient economies in countries on our own land, Africa,” said King Mswati III, drawing applause from delegates and hundreds of members of the public who witnessed the event.

“Zimbabwe has been through turbulent times and yet continues to strive economically and peacefully. This is a great demonstration to the world that Africa can find and implement her own solutions to issues and cases that are uniquely African.”

Having last visited the city in 1995 when he also officially opened the ZITF, the Eswatini leader, who has called for the removal of illegal sanctions against Zimbabwe, said he was impressed by the level of development progress being made by Zimbabwe under the Second Republic despite the restrictive embargo.

He also said the ZITF has grown bigger with more participants and high-quality exhibits.
“I must confess that the (ZITF) vibe is getting stronger and stronger each year and I say well done to everyone who has made this contribution.

“You know even when I landed this morning, looking at the infrastructure compared to the last time I was here, there are totally new structures, new roads, new highways and a lot of congratulations to the people of Zimbabwe and the Government of Zimbabwe,” said King Mswati.

He commended Zimbabwe’s renewed economic diplomacy focus, which is anchored on engagement and re-engagement with the international community under the theme: “a friend to all and an enemy to none”.
King Mswati III said such a policy stance must be commended as it fosters progress and promotes global peace.

“I just want to say something about this. Even King Sobhuza, one of the pillars of Amaswati, educated us that in life you should not have an enemy but rather reach out to your enemies and win their hearts,” he said.

“Once we do that there are a lot of benefits that will come as a result. I am glad to see that even here in Zimbabwe His Excellency (President Mnangagwa) shares the same spirit and I really want to encourage His Excellency to continue with such a good spirit.”

Coming on the back of the disruptive Covid-19 pandemic, King Mswati III said the successful hosting of this year’s ZITF was a huge achievement for Zimbabwe.

He said when he got the invitation to officiate at the ZITF, he immediately accepted the offer as he appreciated the significance of trade exhibitions as key pillars of business trade growth for both big and small enterprises.

“We recognise that the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair continues to grow bigger every year. I have looked at the history of the fair and realised that it is a very important platform to boost and stabilise the economy not only for Zimbabwe but for the Sadc region and Africa as a whole,” he said.

“There are always spill-over effects between economies. When one country prospers, its neighbours and the region benefit from such outflows. In the same vein when one economy struggles and suffers, the effects still flow into the neighbouring countries.”

King Mswati III said the theme of this year’s ZITF closely aligns with the “Transform Africa Summit 2023” that was held in Victoria Falls this week as both events set the tone for businesses in Africa to embrace transformative innovations that will put Zimbabwe and the region in a competitive position in the global markets.

He challenged exhibitors to also embrace standards and modern innovations to produce high-value goods through value-addition and beneficiation.

“Trade fairs are also important because they facilitate the realisation of the African industrialisation agenda, which seeks to promote value-addition for goods and services from Africa as part of strategies to move away from trade in raw materials,” said King Mswati.

He said they also give an opportunity to exhibitors to showcase their goods and services while increasing opportunities for investments in new products.

Zimbabwe and Eswatini enjoy cordial bilateral relations and are both members of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) and Sadc, which enables the two countries to do business without technical barriers to trade.

However, King Mswati III bemoaned low trade and investment levels between the two countries when compared to their respective economical activities with the rest of the world.

“I, therefore, would like to call for more close trade and investment collaboration between Eswatini and Zimbabwe.
“We make this call when most of the African countries, including ourselves, are operationalising the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA),” he said.

“When it’s in full operation there should be seamless trade and business transactions between Eswatini and Zimbabwe.”
Such efforts must be buttressed by the enhancing of free movement of goods and services within the continent, said King Mswati III who called for conscious decisions to grow business with and among African countries.

“This will go a long way in creating jobs for our economies and eradicating poverty from Africa. To support this, the smooth movement of goods across our borders must be enhanced and infrastructure and interconnectivity must be given priority including the removal of all bottlenecks to trade,” he said.

“Digital trade must be the new normal in Africa and Zimbabwe must take the lead in this alongside Eswatini. In our view liberalisation of trade in services, which also includes the movement of persons, will be a positive step.

“This allows our private sector especially micro-small to medium enterprises to travel across the continent without any stringent restrictions such as prohibitive visa entry requirements or duty restrictions.”

Given Africa’s population of more than 1,3 billion people and a combined gross domestic product of more than US$3 trillion, King Mswati III said Africa was capable of supporting itself through increased intra-regional trade and ensuring self-sustainability into the future.

He extended an invitation to Zimbabwean businesses and international exhibitors to also visit Eswatini during any time of the year as well as participate in their trade fair, which is usually held in August.
Such symbiotic acts present many mutual opportunities for business in both countries, which will also increase trade and tourism gains.

“The prospects of success and growth of our people are limitless. Let us, therefore, use every chance before us,” he said.