Mbabane, Sept. 5 (CNA) Taiwan has agreed to help Eswatini, its only African ally, by building a new oil tank in the country, according to a memorandum of understanding (MOU) inked between the two sides on Tuesday.
Overseas Investment & Development Corp. (OIDC) — a Taiwanese company focused on carrying out government overseas aid projects — has been contracted to build the strategic oil facility, Economics Minister Wang Mei-hua (王美花) told reporters in Mbabane following the signing of the agreement.
She did not go into detail, saying only that Eswatini had hoped to construct an oil tank that could store at least 30 days of oil reserves.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who is on a four-day visit to Eswatini, lauded the agreement as a milestone for relations between the two countries, according to a press release issued by the Presidential Office.
Both sides have been in talks about the construction project for some time, she said during a meeting with King of Eswatini Mswati III, adding that the planned facility would help ensure the African state’s energy supply.
Eswatini currently imports all its oil products from South Africa and is therefore susceptible to volatile international crude oil prices, according to the country’s government website.
The country has mandated its national oil company, Eswatini National Petroleum Company (ENPC), to build and operate oil reserve facilities as part of the effort to address the issue and better ensure its oil supply.
Tuesday’s MOU was signed by OIDC General Manager Jeff Chung (鍾家富) and and ENPC Chief Executive Officer Nhlanhla Dlamini.
OIDC was established in 1995 by several state-run and private companies in Taiwan to undertake aid and infrastructure projects launched by the government of the Republic of China (Taiwan’s official name) in its allied nations.
Two other documents were signed at the ceremony which followed the meeting between the two leaders, a deal to provide loans to women entrepreneurs in Eswatini and a sister-city agreement between Kaohsiung and Mbabane.
The financing agreement, according to Wang, is part of a larger women’s empowerment project that the Taiwanese government launched in the African nation in 2020.
As part of the project, the government has trained 5,000 Eswatini women in business and financial planning, Wang said.
Tsai also weighed in on the project, saying she was glad that her government could fund the project and back aspiring women in Eswatini with financial support in the early phase of their businesses.
She also expressed hope that the sister-city agreement signed between Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) and his Mbabane counterpart Vusi Tembe would facilitate more exchanges between cities in the two countries.
Chen told reporters after the ceremony that Kaohsiung was ready to share its experience with Mbabane in promoting information and communications technology, and facilitating the growth of small and medium-sized businesses.
King Mswati III, meanwhile, thanked Taiwan for its continued support of Eswatini’s development and said the three agreements marked an important step for the partnership between the two countries, according to the Office’s release.
The king, who has reigned over the last absolute monarchy in Africa since 1986, was also cited by the release as encouraging more Taiwanese companies to invest in Eswatini.
