Machar urges Wall Street investors to work in South Sudan
March 9, 2012 (JUBA) – In an effort to promote South Sudan to the world’s largest investors, the Vice President of the Republic, Riek Machar Teny, visited the New York Stock Exchange in in the United States of America on Thursday and held a number of meetings with leading business people.
Machar told the investors that South Sudan is now a sovereign nation with business potentials and is free from the debts and sanctions attached to north Sudan, from which South Sudan seceded in July last year. The issue of debts is contested between the two nations, with Khartoum maintaining that South Sudan should share the burden but Juba has so far refused saying that debt was built up financing the military in its two-decade civil war with southern rebels.
As well as international debt the two sides are negotiating on a host of other issues including oil, borders, and the disputed Abyei region. Despite the tension along the north-south border and internal security issues a report by the London-based think tank Chatham House in February found that agricultural investment in South Sudan was higher then could be expected considering the risks.
Machar told the potential investors that eight month old South is has huge potentials in oil, agriculture, wildlife and tourism and urged them to do business in the region.
The Vice President while in New York also met with the American Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, and discussed a wide range of issues including the ongoing post-independence negotiations between Juba and Khartoum in Addis Ababa.
The main issue under discussion is the shutdown of South Sudan’s oil production in February over a dispute over transit fees. Khartoum began confiscating Southern oil claiming Juba owed it $1 billion for the use of its pipelines and refineries since July when the existing deal expired.
China, the main importer of South Sudanese oil has urged the two sides to find a new deal but is also among the countries mentioned in relation to Juba’s plan to build a new pipeline to Kenya to end their dependence on using Port Sudan on Red Sea.
Machar also met with the Chinese Ambassador to UN, Li Bidoang who expressed his country’s strong support to see Sudan and South Sudan share a harmonious relationship. Ambassador Bidoang described his country’s relations with South Sudan as “strong as stone.”
Machar will end his two days stay in New York on Friday.
(ST)