MAPUTO – His Majesty King Mswati III has expressed the kingdom’s desire to invest in energy projects in Mozambique, which will secure Eswatini’s power security and the region.
The king said this when visiting the Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM) where he, together with his delegation comprising of Emazinyane, three cabinet ministers (Foreign Affairs Pholile Shakantu, Commerce and Trade Manqoba Khumalo and Natural Resources and Energy Prince Lonkhokhela), among others, were taken through the E3.3 billion utility plant in Maputo.
The king was told that currently the Thermal Power Plant, which is backed by natural gas, produces 106 megawatts of power. The company supplies Eswatini Electricity Company (EEC) with about five per cent of its full demand, yet it has a commitment of 30%.
It was revealed that part of His Majesty’s visit was to push for EDM to increase its supply to about 100MW. The company through Mozambique Energy Minister Estevao Tomas Rafael Pale was looking at exploring more sights of natural gas in the southern part of the country in order to increase its production.The minister said what was currently hindering their progress were resources to do more exploration, they suspect, that they have more natural gas in the southern part than the country produces.
His Majesty said in doing such explorations, they should not discount the kingdom as it is interested in jointly investing in such projects, which may end up producing enough energy for the two countries and further exporting same to the Southern African Power Pool.
The king also proceeded to visit MozParks, an official developer and operator of Sustainable Economic Zones, which is a public private partnership between Mozambican government’s Agency for Investment and Export Promotion (APIEX) and Swiss-Mozambican investors.
MozParks CEO Onorio Manuel briefed His Majesty King about their mandate, having attracted over 50 companies from around 17 countries around the world. He said they have created over 10 000 jobs since they were established 23 years ago.
The MozPark CEO then took His Majesty King Mswati III to Midas Cables where he was led by Chief Operating Officer Simon Baker to the products they produce; aluminium cables, copper and fibre optic mainly used in power lines.
They source the material to produce the cables from the SEZs major investor, Mozal. The tours marked the king’s last day of his two-day state visit to Mozambique.
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