South Sudan minister calls on private sector to invest in energy industry

May 31, 2011 (JUBA) – Stephen Dhieu Dau, a minister of trade and industry in the South Sudan government has called on the private sector to invest in energy industry to compliment ongoing efforts to curb power deficiency facing the regional capital of Juba.

Dau said on Tuesday that the private sector has a big role to play in curtailing power shortages and said the government’s Public Private Partnership Policy now obliges the sector to stop complement efforts of the government in improving poor transport infrastructure such as ports, railways, roads and airports.

“The government has put up an enabling environment for you to take active role in investments and it is high time you seriously took the challenge. We will always be there to extend necessary assistance towards your successes,” he said.

The minister who spoke to the media in a televised statement seen on South Sudan Television explained that the government would soon introduce quarterly round table meetings with business establishments to address challenges and brainstorm on the sector’s development.

With the private sector now tasked to becoming a major bread winner, the senior member of South Sudan’s ruling party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), challenged higher education institutions to make sure it produced a competent workforce who can easily secure employments in the growing energy sector.

The SPLM will become the governing party of an independent South Sudan in July as the country secedes after southern Sudanese voting overwhelmingly to a separate from the north in referendum earlier this year.

Oil is the driving force of South Sudan’s budget leading the government to look to diversify the economy.

Dau said the government was aware of the challenges that delay the existence of a steady private sector, mentioning some of them as lack of a stable organ that can represent the interests of the whole sector.

“You must fight hard to make sure you speak one language as without that, dreams of building a stable economy won’t be realized at all. Our obligation will be to put in place an enabling environment for that endeavor to work out,” he stressed.

The minister called for the private sector to seriously work on various level government including states and counties as part of the way to address domestic challenges that include the elimination of red tape within government organs, as well as lack of policy predictability and development strategy.

He commended cooperation between his ministry and head of the businesses communities across the region through establishing the ‘Business Focus’ group, which he said collects public views over the challenges that face the smooth functioning of the private sector in the region.

Mohamed Abdullah Deng, a senior businesses men said, also in a televised statement, that the private sector was ready to take a leading role in all fields of economy including investing in power projects.

“We are set for the challenge but we want to first study the existing policies and conditions within the government and its agencies like the Rural Energy Agency (REA). Otherwise we are on the right track,” he said. The private sector is ready to invest in the power sector and we thanked the government for its assurances in facilitating their path to success”, said Deng.

(ST)