South Sudan to host foreign investment conference
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March 9, 2012 (JUBA) - South Sudan said Friday it will host a a high
level investment summit later this month expected to bring together
more than 300 participants from different parts of the world. The
announcement comes as South Sudan’s Vice President draws to a close
his visit to the US to promote the young country to investors.
Organised by South Sudan’s ministry of commerce, industry and
investment, the summit from 20-22 March will be the first of its kind
since South Sudan officially became an independent state in July 2011.
After decades of civil war - resulting in the 2005 peace deal that
enabled South Sudan to secede - South Sudan is one of the poorest
countries the world and relies heavily on imported goods.
Simon Nyang Anei, an undersecretary for investment in the ministry of
commerce, industry and investment told Sudan Tribune on Friday that
the summit would share and examine existing investment opportunities
in different sectors and regions.
The official explained that organisation of such a high level
government summit shows that South Sudan is open for business
engagement and moving towards integrating into the international
economic community.
“The conference will highlight to the world the abundant opportunities
and potential area which South Sudan stands to offer after decades of
the civil war”, said Anei. The governors of South Sudan’s ten state’s
as well as national ministries and "key development partners,
associations and investors from different parts of the world".
"The conference would sell the republic of South Sudan as viable
investment and business destination”, he explained. The country has
minimal infrastructure and problems of insecurity, especially in
Unity, Jonglei and Upper Nile States and a largely illiterate
population but the government are keen to use the upcoming event to
emphasise the potential of both joint partnership and direct
investment opportunities.
International companies will be encouraged to engage in
commercialising South Sudan’s agriculture and energy industries as
well as Information Communication Technology, Anei said.
Echoing Machar’s comments in the US, Anei said that South Sudan was
now a sovereign nation having seceded from Sudan, meaning that the
eight-month old country did not inherit the economic sanctions the US
placed on Sudan for allegedly sponsoring terrorism and for the conduct
of its armed forces and paramilitaries in response to the insurgency
in Darfur that began in 2003.
“South Sudan is no more part of Sudan. It is already a sovereign
nation with business potentials and is free from debts and sanctions
as it is no longer part of Khartoum”, he said.
The ministry’s third top official said the new nation has huge
potential in oil, agriculture, wildlife and tourism and urged the
investors to do business in the region.
A research paper by the Chatham House think tank published in January
found that much of the land investment in South Sudan appears to be
speculative. A Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) study quoted in the report
found that ’with respect to South Sudan, the size of the deals
reflects an investor appetite that is remark- able, given the relative
insecurity of the area.’
MACHAR VISITS US
In an effort to promote South Sudan to the world’s largest investors,
the Vice President of the Republic, Riek Machar Teny, visited the New
York Stock Exchange in in the United States of America on Thursday and
held a number of meetings with leading business people.
Machar told the investors that South Sudan is now a sovereign nation
with business potentials and is free from the debts and sanctions
attached to north Sudan, from which South Sudan seceded in July last
year. The issue of debts is contested between the two nations, with
Khartoum maintaining that South Sudan should share the burden but Juba
has so far refused saying that debt was built up financing the
military in its two-decade civil war with southern rebels.
(ST)
Chatham House, Briefing Paper, Jason Mosley: Peace, Bread and Land:
Agricultural Investments in Ethiopia and the Sudans - Jan 2012
Guardian: South Sudan set to showcase its foreign investment potential
- 14 Dec 2011
How We Made It In Africa: South Sudan investment event looking to lure
foreign firms - 19 Aug 2011
Economist: Looking for laws - 4 Feb 2010
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