STATEMENT BY THE RIGHT HON. PRIME MINISTER

 

 

 

DR B.SIBUSISO DLAMINI

 

 

 

AT THE 2014 ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR

 

AWARDS GALA DINNER

 

 

 

ROYAL SWAZI SUN CONVENTION CENTRE

 

 

 

FRIDAY 12 SEPTEMBER 2014

 

 

 

Your Royal Highnesses

 

Chiefs

 

Honourable Ministers

 

Chief Justice

 

Excellencies of the Diplomatic Corps

 

Presiding Officers and Members of both Houses of Parliament

 

Regional Administrator of the Manzini Region

 

Competition Judges

 

Entrepreneurs

 

Judges

 

Chairperson, Board, CEO and Staff of SEDCO

 

Distinguished Guests

 

Ladies and Gentlemen

 

 

 

 

 

I greet you all this evening and, on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, welcome everyone, especially the motivational speaker and visitors from abroad. I should also add how delighted I am to, yet again, attend the annual Entrepreneur of the Year Awards Dinner. The words “yet again” are usually employed in the context of a complaint. “Yet again you failed to pay your account on time” might be one example. But I use the words in a very positive way, to emphasise the extent to which the Entrepreneur of the Year Awards competition has become what the farmers and gardeners would call a hardy annual. In other words, set firmly as an annual event in the national calendar, and, in terms of attendance, a “must” in my own professional diary.

 

 

 

I am equally pleased to note that this year’s Competition has continued to attract a high number of participants which provides a strong justification for the confidence and generosity that our sponsors have shown towards the event and for the purpose that it serves.

 

 

 

I am sure nobody here this evening needs me to explain the importance of a competition such as this. As a country we need a lot more entrepreneurs producing goods and services of value. A competition of this nature is not the only technique available to His Majesty’s Government to present a solid encouragement to the existing and would-entrepreneurs of our country. But it stands right up there among the numerous incentives that we, in the public sector, can create or conceive that can have a positive impact.

 

 

 

Our economy is at a critical point in the history of our country. In the Programme of Action for this Administration that was published in June of this year, together with the new Swaziland Development Index, annual economic growth of 5 to 7% per annum is our target over the coming years. It will serve as the great provider, in the sense that it is faster economic growth that will be the provider of the financial resources for Government to take the level of service delivery in our country towards our target of first world status by 2022. It will also serve the critically important function of creating more jobs and reducing poverty in our country.

 

 

 

Simple, but not easy! But I repeat the famous words of United States President Barack Obama – “yes we can.” We as a Nation can achieve that rate of economic growth. But it requires everyone coming to the party – as the modern-day expression goes.

 

 

 

Let us start with Government. Our job is to improve the business environment to make it second to none, at least among our more easily recognizable competitors, in terms of attracting new foreign, as well as expanded domestic investment. To guide us in the process of delivery we have the new Investor Roadmap (IRM) launched in 2012. This is Government’s very detailed plan of activities, outputs and outcomes that will drive up the standard of public service delivery and take our business environment to new heights.

 

 

 

We have certainly made progress since that launch date but, since most sub-Saharan countries on the continent appear to have raised their game when it comes to the quality of the business environment, we are having to step up a gear. And rapidly. Government has therefore set up and staffed a well-resourced IRM Unit to fast-track the required improvements.

 

 

 

The full outcome of this will be seen over the coming months and, in common with the subject matter of this evening’s function, there is nothing more activity-stimulating and excellence-achieving than some good healthy competition. And with the IRM the judge of the effectiveness of our implementation programme is the World Bank Ease of Doing Business Index, a much consulted guide in the foreign direct investment (FDI) market.

 

 

 

The same IRM contains all the measures required to boost entrepreneurship throughout the country at small, medium and micro-scale (SMME) level. Of critical relevance to moving rapidly up that Index will be the interaction between the IRM Unit and our private sector players, big and small, to turn our business environment promises into reality.   From enterprise start-up, to renewal of licences, to linkages with big business, to improved access to training and access to affordable finance and the marketplace, the IRM Unit will proceed to address all the bottlenecks and other constraints that face the SMME operative, including those in the informal sector.

 

 

 

There is, of course, what we might call the other side of the coin. And that, in the SMME context, is the strength of the entrepreneurial culture.   This is an aspect to which we are paying special attention. We now recognise that entrepreneurship will grow exponentially if it takes root in the individual at a young age. But did we all want to be entrepreneurs when we were at school? Of course not.   It was what the grown-ups worried about, while we followed our favourite pursuits of football, netball and music.

 

 

 

But what if the subject of entrepreneurship, with its stimulating personal challenges and ensuing benefits, is brought to us at a young age? That, of course, is the rationale behind entrepreneurship now being brought into our schools’ curriculum, and the continuing resource support of Government and a number of generous donors, to those excellent centres promoting grass roots entrepreneurship at student level – Junior Achievement and Enactus. And we are most encouraged to read that the European Union-financed programme, implemented by Technoserve, has trained 159 lecturers and 618 student teachers who have been trained to teach our youth in business management.

 

 

 

I cannot, in this short statement, present the many initiatives underway to assist the SMMEs of our country but I take the opportunity to mention three.

 

 

 

An entrepreneurship wing at the University of Swaziland has opened up its research resources to our SMMEs through the formation of the Entrepreneurship Business Development Centre (EBDC). This was done in recognition of the symbiotic relationship that exists between business growth and research as well as acknowledging role of research in under-pinning innovation.

 

 

 

Another intervention by Government to assist our SMMEs has been the establishment of the Swaziland Standards Authority (SWASA), to improve the competitiveness of our businesses at both national and international levels.  Our honey can now compete outside our borders when it meets the specific standard now set at SWASA and, thus, certified fit to meet the rigorous standards of the global supply chain.

 

 

 

Together with the Bankers Association of Swaziland, Government recently reviewed the rules of the Loan Guarantee Fund so that a business start-up loan can be covered by guarantee up to 95% of the debt with the maximum that can be borrowed increased from E150 000 to E500 000. This Fund seeks to mitigate the lenders’ risk by protecting against the risk of default and has clearly increased the appetite of the banks for lending. Engaging the financial institutions in how they can be less risk-averse will be an activity undertaken by the IRM Unit. We expect the financiers to work with us to identify how the business plans that seek to justify loans to SMMES can be produced to a consistently high standard, thus justifying the Government argument that the quality and robustness of the business plan should be the lending guide, replacing the lenders’ preference for collateral which is generally in very short supply.

 

 

 

As I conclude, let me express the very deepest appreciation of His Majesty’s Government to our sponsors, especially the First National Bank, for their generous expression of corporate social responsibility.  I also thank the management and Board of SEDCO for their role in organising this Competition and Gala Dinner. I would also like to express our gratitude to our two eminent guests Mr Vusi Thembekwayo and Dr Tebogo Matome for their fine, motivational oratory.

 

 

 

To the judges I say a hearty “thank you” and to the competitors I say “congratulations and well done” to all of you. Whether or not you end up a winner, matters to you a great deal than it does to us. But it has brought you into the spotlight and we congratulate you for that. We are enormously pleased to see you all submitting your entries for the event, making your records available for audit, driving yourselves into the annals of entrepreneurial history of our country and acting as role models to the many who, I hope, will continue to be inspired by this annual event.

 

 

 

Thank you for inviting me this evening.