Sudan offers opportunities to Malaysian investors
April 14, 2007 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan can offer big business opportunities to Malaysian investors particularly in the sectors of agriculture and food industry, a Malaysian official said. He further added that housing sector is also very promising.
Sudan can offer vast business opportunities to “creative” Malaysian investors, said Malaysian External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) director of the West Asia/Africa section of the International Network and Trade Promotion Division, Dzulkifli Mahmud.
He said Sudan, the largest country in Africa with an area of 2.5 million sq km and a population of about 37 million, can offer Malaysian investors opportunities in the plantation agriculture sector, reported the Malaysian news agency Bernama.
They could introduce the cultivation of cash crops within plantations, as is being done in rubber and oil palm plantations in Malaysia, he told Malaysian pressmen here to cover Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s official visit here on Monday and Tuesday.
Malaysian investors can also participate in the packaging and repackaging of food products and distribute them in the region, he added.
Malaysian halal food producers can also use Sudan as a production base as the country is tailor-made to their requirements.
“We are also looking for Malaysian investors who are interested in assembling household and consumer electrical products in the country,” he said, adding that Khartoum, the capital with about six million people, can be a big consumer market.
Dzulkifli said Malaysian investors should also take into account Sudan’s membership of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern African States (COMESA) and the Greater Arab Free Trade Area (GAFTA).
Under COMESA, he noted, trading with Sudan opens market access to the other COMESA members – Djibouti, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The COMESA members have eliminated tariffs on COMESA originating products, in line with a tariff reduction schedule and trade liberalisation programme on reduction and eventual elimination of tariffs and non-tariff barriers to intra-regional trade.
As a member of GAFTA, he said, Sudan provides benefits under the agreement with the Arab League members of GAFTA – Jordan, Bahrain, the UAE, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Egypt, Morocco, Yemen and Palestine.
Since Arab countries are a major market for Sudan, Dzulkifli said business dealings with the country will help expedite Malaysia’s exports of products and services to other GAFTA members.
Except for the Darfur area which is about two hours by flight from Khartoum in the western part of the country, he said, Sudan is a peaceful country.
A deal in 2005 between the former rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, and the Khartoum government cleared the way for a comprehensive peace settlement to end the civil war in the south.
The country straddles the middle reaches of the Nile and is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea, Ethiopia and Eritrea to the east, Kenya, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo to the south and the Central African Republic, Chad and Libya to the west.
Meanwhile, the Malaysian Ambassador to Sudan, Haji Zainal Hamzah, who began his tour of duty here just two months ago, said Malaysia hoped Abdullah’s visit here will spur many Sudanese businessmen to come to Malaysia.
Malaysia also wants to offer educational opportunities to students from this country, he added.
(ST)