Sudan conflict affecting regional economy, says Kiir

September 11, 2023 (JUBA) – South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has said the ongoing war in Sudan is affecting the region, causing massive influx of refugees.

“We organized this economic conference to address issues of our national economy and see how we can diversify the economy. We have to depend on one export which is facing a lot of challenges. Sometimes prices drop, sometimes another situation comes in. We want to see how we can generate our resources from other revenues without affecting the development project,” he said on Saturday.

He was speaking at the closure of a five-day economic conference held in the capital, Juba.

Kiir said the current situation in Sudan was now affecting other countries in the region, forcing them to devise ways of generating revenues to fund their budgets.

“This war has affected trade in the sense that instead of goods and services taking place between Sudan and other countries as it used to be before, it is now people fleeing the country,” he explained.

The South Sudanese leader said the resolutions of the economic conference would be implemented because the council of ministers and parliament will be involved in its deliberation and passing to ensure they are fully implemented.

“I know there have been different voices.  Some voices have commended the conference based on what they heard from the presenters and others have questioned whether the resolutions will be implemented. For those who have expressed doubt, I would like to assure you that these resolutions will be implemented because we plan to give them government backing,” he stressed.

For his part, Finance Minister Bak Barnaba Chol admitted that there was a lot of skepticism about whether the conference’s resolutions will ever be implemented.

“Before the commencement of the conference, there was a lot of skepticism about whether the conference resolutions would hold water. The argument was that there have been several national conferences and workshops held before but to no avail,” he said.

The conference, which brought together government officials, economists, business leaders and other stakeholders aimed at charting a new economic course with a focus on bolstering agricultural productivity to reduce dependence on oil revenues.

(ST)