Swazi Observer

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EMBRACE DIGITISATION - RSTP

By SILINDZELWE NXUMALO | 2023-03-20

Royal Science and Technology Park (RSTP) Chief Executive Officer, (CEO) Vumile Dlamini has urged members of the public to embrace digitisation.

He said digitisation was the phenomena which the world was now embracing and should enable people to also play a role in the global economy.

Dlamini was speaking during the closing ceremony of the ‘How to build a start-up with $100’ entrepreneurship seminar held at the RSTP. The seminar was held through collaboration with the Lutfo Dlamini Foundation and Israel serial entrepreneur, Dr Ron Adany.

He said Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) were very critical for any economy to grow and be stable.

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“The diversification of our economy is very critical hence we encourage the coming in of start-ups that are not only targeting the local economy but going global as well. This will go a long way in achieving the call by His Majesty for the country to stop relying on the Southern African Customs Union receipts,” he said.

Dlamini said the seminar aligned with their vision of encouraging entrepreneurship in the country as they strongly believed that having more people starting and running successful businesses would go a long way into growing the economy.

“That is why we implore all our stakeholders that we must join hands in creating an enabling environment for the youth in particular to go into entrepreneurship as that will help the country fight the scourge of unemployment,” said the CEO.

He stated that having created the environment for the youth to go into entrepreneurship, they must also have an appetite for their products.

improved
“Let us consume their products, so that the youth stays in business and those businesses grow beyond the point of Start-Ups and SMEs,” said Dlamini.

He further thanked and appreciated His Majesty for pioneering the RSTP to stimulate economic development and also making sure that they did not just become a science park but be one that improved the lives of people particularly the youth.

“One of the key services that we provide is the Business Incubator, which is a platform that provides all necessary services that are required by Start-Ups when starting their innovations,” he said.

Dlamini said the king gave them a Science Park that also nourished Start-Up and SME sectors which played a huge role in the economic stability of any country.

“This we do through the provision training and research facilities that allow entrepreneurs to do cutting edge research as they develop their innovations,” said the CEO.

He further thanked Dr Ron Adany for taking his time to come to the kingdom of Eswatini to equip people with knowledge.

“I strongly believe that he leaves behind a group of highly motivated and properly skilled entrepreneurs who will utilise whatever minimal resources at their disposal and create wealth for themselves and the country,” he said. He also encouraged the start-ups to put to use the information that they had been given to their benefit.

“The good thing about Dr Ron is that he is not talking about theory, but he speaks from experience. As someone who has walked this journey and continues to run very successful businesses,” said Dlamini.

The CEO further mentioned that the RSTP was a special economic zone and they believed that having a pool of great entrepreneurs would assist them to create the value chain that is needed.

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He said investors locating within the park should not look outside the country’s boarders for jobs that they wanted to outsource so that they could concentrate on their core-business.

“That therefore creates the value for people who may not qualify to be within the park, they will form part of the ecosystem and the value-chain. We also believe that as you grow to be big businesses, you will eventually be housed at the park and enjoy the benefits of being within the special economic zone,” he said.

Lutfo Foundation Founder Lutfo Dlamini congratulated the entrepreneurs and wished them well.

Israel Ambassador to Eswatini, Lior Keinan who attended virtually also congratulated the participants and thanked Dr Adany for coming to assist locals.
A total of 107 applications were received from aspiring entrepreneurs for the seminar and they were shortlisted to 34.

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