Sudan hopes to expand economic, trade cooperation with China- FM

BEIJING, May 21, 2005 (Xinhua) — Visiting Sudanese Minister of External Affairs Mustafa Othman Ismail said that Sudan and China have good prospects for economic cooperation and that Sudan hopes to further expand cooperation with China in the fields of energy, minerals, communications and infrastructure construction.

Sudanese Minister of External Affairs Mustafa Othman Ismail.

“China is the number one economic partner of the Sudan so far, and it’s our pleasure to see investment from China,” said Ismail at a press conference here Saturday.

Ismail pledged that Sudan is devoted to economic and trade cooperation with China, noting that the country encourages Chinese enterprises to further integrate into the process of Sudan’s economic construction, especially in the fields of oil and natural gas exploitation, textiles and public transportation.

The Sudanese foreign minister also said that Chinese companies are welcome to invest in industries such as textiles, food processing, agriculture and animal husbandry.

“We hope cooperation will extend to a larger extent,” Ismail said.

Sudan has the largest agricultural society in Africa. According to statistics from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, two-way trade between China and Sudan reached about 2.521 billion US dollars last year, an increase of 31.3 percent over the previous year.