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June 1, 2011 (JUBA) - The Peoples Republic of China - the world’s emerging second largest economy - has expressed its readiness to invest in South Sudan after its declaration of independence in July.
The announcement came in a meeting this week between the vice president of the Government of Southern Sudan, Riek Machar Teny, and a visiting delegation from China’s ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The meeting discussed diplomatic relations as well as economic cooperation between the two countries. Machar told the Chinese diplomats that the region was working to attract foreign investors in order to realize the expectations of the people of South Sudan after independence.
In a statement to the press after the meeting, the Director General in charge of the department of West Asia and North Africa in the Chinese ministry of Foreign Affairs, Chen Xiaodang, said China was ready to expand its investment in various economic sectors in South Sudan.
He said the two countries will promote their bilateral relations as China will encourage its private enterprises to carry out economic and trade activities between the two nations. Xiaodang also said the two countries would exchange cultural activities.
The areas of investment will include physical infrastructure, hydroelectric energy, agriculture, education and health, among many others.
China is currently the leading investor in the oil sector in Southern Sudan and has already invested in the constructions of roads. Oil revenues constitute around 98 percent of South Sudan’s budget.
The region’s secession was made possible through a referendum agreed as part of a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war between North and South Sudan.
(ST)
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