STATEMENT BY THE RT HON. PRIME MINISTER
DR B.SIBUSISO DLAMINI
AT THE SIGNING CEREMONY FOR 11TH EUROPEAN DEVELOPMENT FUNDS PROJECTS
AT THE CABINET OFFICES
MONDAY 6 JULY 2015
Honourable Ministers
Your Excellency EU Ambassador, Mr Nicola Bellomo
Distinguished Guests
Representatives of the Media
Ladies and Gentlemen
I am delighted to have the opportunity to participate in today’s signing ceremony for the first two projects in the 11th EDF, and I take the opportunity to welcome His Excellency Ambassador Bellomo and thank him for joining us today and for his active participation in a number of recent events of significance in our country.
The 11th EDF itself will bring 60 million Euros (around E810 million) of projects to Swaziland over the coming years up to 2020. These first projects are very different to each other in content but both address the core of our economic growth and poverty reduction strategies.
The first of these projects for signing today is the 14.2 million Euros (around E192 million) High Value Crops and Horticulture Project). These words are sweet music to our ears since, the higher the value of the crop, the higher the return per hectare and the more cost effective the transportation to market. This project will be enormously helpful, with implementation through SWADE and NAMBOARD, in diversifying from excessive dependence on existing crops as well as bringing a higher income per hectare to farmers.
Projects like this, while being precisely what we need, do not happen on autopilot, so to speak. They require new techniques and skills and may target different markets. So, within the Project there is land and irrigation systems development work for farmer companies in the area that we know as LUSIP One, while at the same time the need for strengthening the agronomic and business practice and skills of those companies. And, with access to national and international markets being a continuous challenge for rural producers, the Project also provides assistance in market identification, quality processing, and transport and storage systems.
The second project for signing today is the Support to the Development of a Social Protection System in Swaziland at 5.8 million Euros (around E78 million). This is a combination of technical assistance, building improvement and equipment support and will make a vital contribution to elevating Swaziland’s ability to extend social assistance more broadly and efficiently, and support implementation of the much-needed and newly adopted social insurance programme. Two key agencies that will benefit from capacity-building in the Project are the Department of Social Welfare in the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office, and the Department of Social Security in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. During implementation of the Project those two agencies will be assisted by the University of Swaziland.
A practical and consistent concern for the less advantaged is an essential feature of a decent society. While social insurance schemes make a significant contribution to addressing such imbalances, there has to be in place a viable and sustainable financial mechanism to create the necessary funds. This Project will, inter alia, help us to design and implement an appropriate scheme.
On behalf of His Majesty’s Government, I extend our deepest gratitude to the people of the European Union member countries, to their governments and to the European Union administration itself for the extremely generous 11th EDF Programme and, especially, these two projects for which I have the honour of signing the Financing Agreements today.
Thank you.