KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA – His Majesty the King met with SMH Rail Chairman and Managing Director Datuk PK Nara last night and invited his company to invest and set up its Southern Africa base in the Kingdom of Eswatini.
SMH Rail is one of Malaysia’s leading railway rolling stock manufacturers and maintenance service providers, with a global footprint in over 20 countries spanning Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
The company, which was established in 1999, has 25 years of engineering excellence in the manufacturing of locomotives, freight wagons, metro trains and monorails, as well as the remanufacturing of grounded locomotives.
His Majesty the King expressed his pleasure at being able to meet SMH Rail’s founder and Managing Director while fresh from the 46th Ordinary Summit of the SADC Heads of State and Government, where leaders addressed industrialisation through infrastructure development and tasked themselves with seeking such investors.
“Eswatini and the continent, if it is to industrialise and develop, need serious investments in infrastructure, which includes the issues of freight and rail that are critical in the movement of goods and services. Transportation of these goods is therefore critical and we are happy to have met you. In our private talks you have demonstrated the desire to visit the Kingdom to explore the opportunities of setting up your business in the southern part of Africa, since you already have a footprint in Kenya, which is in the eastern and northern part of Africa,” the King said.
The King said he was impressed by the company history shared by Chairman Nara and was encouraged by the promise to send a team of experts to visit the Kingdom soon to examine establishing SMH Rail in Eswatini.
“It is interesting to know and learn that you yourself are the founder of that company. I was very interested to hear how you have managed, how you have put it together, all from scratch. Today it is one of the very strong companies in Malaysia, which is not only here, but all over the world, providing services to many countries,” His Majesty the King said.
“Our discussions concluded that let us come together, put together some ideas, and see how we can form a partnership where you can establish in Eswatini,” His Majesty added.
He said he was also impressed by Chairman Nara’s interest in hiring emaSwati based in Malaysia to learn more about his company and subsequently incorporate them into the firm once established in Eswatini.
Chairman Nara sponsored His Majesty’s dinner with the emaSwati students and said, having heard firsthand how talented they were, he hopes they will serve as aviators in his company through internships and employment before returning home to contribute to the locomotive industry.
“When you said that you would like to recruit some from Africa, and they are coming from Eswatini, they can take you all over Africa and also introduce the company to other African countries. All that it takes is a lot of intellectual acumen and intelligence to do what you did. As Eswatini, we are proud to associate ourselves with someone like yourself, Chairman Nara, whom we know that if we partner, we can go a very long way,” the King said.
His Majesty concluded: “I wish to say thank you to your company and to all the teams who are working tirelessly — because a visionary can vision, but you need those who can translate the vision into action, without whom the vision will not become realistic. To all the teams who have worked past and present, we say well done to all of them and wish the company a lot of success.”
The King has assigned Minister for Commerce, Industry and Trade Manqoba Khumalo, who is accompanying him, to work alongside the Ministry of Public Works and Transport and Eswatini Railways (ESR) to ensure that SMH Rail is assisted as it explores investment opportunities in the country.
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