As means to curb the high unemployment rate, Emaswati will soon be trained locally before they go to Taiwan for work.
His Majesty King Mswati III said in April, he and Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung had agreed to have Emaswati work in Taiwan’s different industries, and that for a start, 1 000 citizens would be employed annually.
The King announced this during a business dinner he hosted at Mandvulo Grand Hall on Wednesday evening. During the event, the king met with 21 investors from Taiwan.
In his speech, His Majesty said Eswatini, like many other African countries, was faced with a high unemployment rate, especially among the youth. He said the two countries had agreed to recruit and train Emaswati for jobs available in Taiwan.
For this project, the King said it was proposed that a training facility should be built locally, and that the suitable place for this establishment was between Manzini and Mbabane. His Majesty said consultations on the exact location where the facility will be built are still ongoing.
“The construction of this facility might take some time, but to show that we are all committed, we agreed to proceed with the recruitment of Emaswati who are interested to go and work in Taiwan. We agreed that the Taiwan Technical Mission should be used as a training facility for now,” said the King.
He explained that at the training facility, the interested locals would be taught the language spoken in Taiwan in order to break communication barriers.
He said they would also be taught about the companies that they would be working for, the culture and everything they would need to know about Taiwan before going there.
On this note, the King encouraged all Emaswati, especially tertiary graduates, to use this opportunity by applying for jobs in Taiwan.
“Emaswati who are looking for opportunities must take advantage of this opportunity we have created with Taiwan. They can go live happily in Taiwan. We’ll look at ways to ensure that while there they do not encounter challenges, just like we will ensure that the Taiwanese people who will be residing in the Kingdom will be well taken care of,” the King said.
Further, His Majesty said the exchange programme where citizens from Eswatini live in Taiwan and vice-versa strengthened the existing bilateral relations between the two states.
The King’s announcement of the employment opportunities for Emaswati in Taiwan was after the Director at Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dr Charlie Chiang pronounced a E6 billion investment in the establishment of a Taiwan Industrial Park at Phocweni in Matsapha. The park, to sit on about 500 hectares of land, will have an industrial zone exclusively reserved for Taiwanese investors to set up businesses, as well as a residential area.
The King also noted that while Taiwanese businesses will be allowed to set up at the reserved industrial park, a lot of Emaswati would still be hired, further flattening the unemployment curve.
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