Region
Swaziland

Sector
Manufacturing

Summary:

Swaziland is promoting the development of a vibrant manufacturing industry to produce pharmaceutical products and other consumables locally. Potential investors have a guaranteed local and regional market.

Contact
Zizwe Vilane

Email
vilanez@sipa.org.sz

Tel
+268 404 0470/2/3/4

Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing in Swaziland

Swaziland imports a number of pharmaceutical products and consumables into the country. This sometimes creates challenges with regards to the supply of medicine and consumables within the country. Furthermore, the country loses out on a lot of revenue due to increased imports into the country.

The Swaziland government hereby extends an invitation to major companies to set-up manufacturing facilities, not only for the local market but for exports as well. In this regards, the government will support and consider favourably in terms of procurement of products made in Swaziland. In this regards, the government invites internationally accredited pharmaceutical companies to set-up state of the art manufacturing facilities in Swaziland to export into the region as well.

Project objectives

• Reduce imports of pharmaceuticals and consumables into the country;
• Increased job opportunities for the highly skilled Swazi’s and general labourers that could be employed within the facility;
• Improved health for the people of Swaziland; and
• Increased economic growth through export revenue.

Vision

To help increase economic activity in the country and slowly guide Swaziland towards its vision of being a first world country, through the attraction of high value light manufacturing activities that not only improves the economy of Swaziland but further ensures that the country is a leading exporter into the Southern Africa region of pharmaceutical products. The project further aims to encourage activity within the Royal Science and Technology Park.

What are the next steps?

• Meetings with key players within the pharmaceuticals industry;
• Provision of information on the health sector and pharmaceutical procurement within the Ministry of Health;
• Discussions and negotiations on possible strategic partnership between Swaziland and pharmaceutical companies.

Electronics Assembly in Swaziland for export markets

The major gateway for imports into Southern Africa is South Africa, which also happens to have a larger market. In most cases, these imports attract a duty into Southern Africa as stated under the SACU external tariffs. Swaziland being a member of the South Africa Customs Union (SACU) has duty free access into the South Africa market and the rest of Africa, Europe (EPA) and the US (AGOA).

The Swaziland Government hereby extends an invitation to international brands, assembly companies and OEM companies, to invest in the electronics assembly industry for exports into the region and beyond to take advantage of the following:

• Strategic location within Southern Africa, anchored by excellent transport infrastructure;
• Low cost manufacturing base;
• Easy and duty free access into Southern African Region, United States and European Union;

Project objectives

The objective of the proposal is to create jobs and help the economy to move from low-skill sectors into high value processors, by initially focusing on the household electronics assembly industry. This will create jobs for many Swazi’s, especially those with technical skills. This will further improve Swaziland’s exports and hence impact positively on our trade balance.

The project will also help reduce the costs of exporting into South Africa as the electronics components can be imported into Swaziland duty free, assembled there and exported into Southern Africa duty free.

Rationale

Exports of electronics components into SACU attract a duty of between 10% and 30% thus making international exports into South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho, Botswana and Namibia more expensive for consumer. This limits the likely market share that most consumer electronics companies could realise with a physical presence in the region. Furthermore the high cost of doing business in most developed and transition economies necessitates that companies set up off-shore operations to take advantage of Swaziland’s duty free status. Swaziland thus offers immense benefits for international and well known brands that currently have no assembly operations in Africa or are looking at being closer to the markets and reduce their operational costs. Benefits and advantages of locating such assembly operations in Swaziland include:

• Duty free entry of the electronics components to be used in the assembly of consumer electronics (computers, cell-phones, televisions etc);
• Duty free entry of finished products made in Swaziland into South Africa and beyond;
• Reduced costs of doing business;
• Disciplined and hardworking labour force;
• Duty free access into the United States and European markets; and
• Excellent infrastructure

What are the next steps?

• Meetings with some of the electronics assembly and manufacturing companies in South Africa, Africa, Europe, Turkey, US and Asia with a view to encouraging investments into Swaziland by allowing duty free entry of electronics components and further duty free access for Swazi assembled and value-added products;
• Encourage international brands to invest in the light manufacturing and electronics assembly industry in Swaziland;
• Facilitating inward mission by SIPA of all private sector that is active in this areas


For more information about these and other SIPA investment opportunities, contact:

Mr Zizwe Vilane
Email: vilanez@sipa.org.sz
Tel: +268 404 0470