South Sudan launches $20.2m project to develop private sector
January 29, 2009 (JUBA) — The Southern Sudan Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Thursday launched a $20.2m project to stimulate the growth of the private sector in Southern Sudan.
The Private Sector Development (PSD) project is a venture jointly financed by Southern Sudan government and the Multi-Donor Trust Fund for Southern Sudan (MDTF-SS).
The project is designed to fulfill the clause in the Interim Constitution of Southern Sudan calling for the Government to “develop and regulate the economy of Southern Sudan in order to achieve prosperity through policies aimed at increasing production, creating an efficient and self-reliant economy and encouraging free market and prohibition of monopoly” said Anthony Lino Makana, the GOSS Minister of Commerce and Industry .
Waleed Alatabani, World Bank Task Team Leader of the PSD project, praised the role played by the southern Sudan government to promote the private sector. He pledged the Bank’s cooperation to make the project a success.
The project aims to establish an enabling policy, legal and regulatory environment for trade and investment. The other objective is to create a viable microfinance sector that provides banking services to the currently unbanked but economically active poor.
The Ministry has trained prospective entrepreneurs and awarded a financial grant of $20,000 to each entrepreneur through a competitive process called the “Business Plan Competition.’
In the microfinance front, four microfinance institutions have been awarded a total of sum of $1million. The Bank of Southern Sudan supervises the institutions through the Sudan Southern Microfinance Development Facility.
While On industrial development, a n agreement has been signed with the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) to build the capacity of the ministry and the business community.
Further a piece of land, in Juba town, has been allocated for the establishment of a wholesale market to be undertaken through public private sector engagement.
The major donors of the MDTF are Canada, Denmark, Egypt, European Union, Finland, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and the World Bank.
(ST)
Abu-chook
South Sudan launches $20.2m project to develop private sector
As a concerned citizen like the rest of you, I was very please to read the South Sudan private sector plan.It is just a smart private sector development strategic idea on how the economic crisis is affecting other part of the world such as South Sudan. And one of the solution to it is to develop and support the South Sudan private sector because of the follwing three reasons:
First, private sector in my understanding is a power engine of growth in poorer areas like South Sudan and so ons. And that growth drives in development interms of job creations,good standard of livings for most private citizens. For example, the more entrepreneurs the private citizens are, the better off their livings and life become.
Another reason why I do think it is a strategic idea to support and develop the private sector in Southern Sudan is not just private sector is always means big corporations like Toyota but it always means as a mmeeting-point of market traders, entrepreneurs and farmers who sell their goods and sevices in the market economy. As a result, without all these activities, there is no economy in that place. Economic development starts in this ways and it is the golden ways of human beings to sustain their lives and to meet their needs and wants. For instance, I do believe that private sector is one of the role model of business in developments. Because if the government doesn’t privatize most of its citizens’ business, then that bgovernmnet is very likely to become weak and unstable due to its citizens dependency on the governmnet.
And the Last point I want to make is that, in order for the Governmnet of South Sudan to move forward effectively with its plan on private sector, it needs what I called South Sudan Major Marketing Compaigns: The objective of this compaign is to let South Sudan Government focusing on how to attract investments, create better conditions for growths and to attian the brain power in order to compete in the knowledge economy. What is the smart idea behind this compaigns? Well because South Sudan must needs more if not many well educated business men or women to bring in the supply of innovations and researchs to develop the next generations of business in South Sudan, for the 21st century. In simple language, South Sudan must now train its farmers on crops , animals management and marketing. It must train its entrepreneurs on how to operate and manage business, on how to sell and buy quality of goods and services.
And above all, every individual in the private Business of South Sudan must understands the business ethics or laws of doing legal business. Because in these ways, no cheating, no fake money in people’s hands and no frauds of doing business. Because to make sure all customers and business’s owners are both protected unders the law and by the laws.
South Sudan Must prevail!! one generation at a time.