Sudan to hold joint economic meeting with Russia in mid-December
November 15, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s minister of mining, Kamal Abdel-Latif, has been acquainted with the ongoing arrangements for the meeting of the Joint Sudanese-Russian Ministerial Committee for Economic and Trade Cooperation (CETC).
The letter affirmed the final preparations for the CETC meeting which is scheduled to convene in mid-December.
Sudan has stepped up its efforts to attract Russian investments particularly in the energy sector.
The Sudanese oil minister Awad Ahmed al-Jazz travelled to Moscow last month for talks with his Russian counterpart Alexander Novac that focused on the importance of increasing Russian investments in Sudan’s oil industry and to help introduce modern technology in that field.
In a separate issue, Abdel-Latif also met with South Africa’s ambassador to Khartoum and discussed the joint cooperation on mining services and how Sudan could benefit from South Africa’s great experience in mining industry particularly in the area of laboratories.
The South African ambassador expressed happiness for the developing relation between the two countries in mining, stressing his personal follow up on the implementation of the agreed projects.
Earlier this month, Sudan signed an agreement with the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) to establish integrated mining laboratories at a cost of $65 million.
The project, which includes 12 integrated labs, will be built over a 100,000 sq meter area in the town of Garri north of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum and will be completed within three years.
Gold has become Sudan’s biggest export, partially replacing oil revenues that made up more than 50% of state income until South Sudan’s secession.
The Sudanese government said that its gold sales amounted to $2.2 billion in 2012.
The ministry of mining recently stated that 20 out of 90 companies in that sector would be going into production stages by the end of 2013.
(ST)