Large delegation of Chinese investors to arrive in Khartoum in late September
August 31, 2016 (KHARTOUM) – China’s Minister of Agriculture will head a delegation from a number of animal, agricultural and railways investment companies that would arrive in Khartoum in the third week of September.
The Higher Committee for Supervising Sudanese-Chinese Relations on Wednesday has held its regular meeting at the presidential palace in Khartoum under the chairmanship of the committee’s deputy chairman Awad al-Jazz.
In statements following the meeting, al-Jazz said the committee is making arrangements to receive the Chinese Minister of Agriculture from 21 to 24 September, pointing the minister would be accompanied by a number of investors.
He described the upcoming visit as a new shift in the Sudanese-Chinese partnership in the areas of agriculture and livestock, saying the corresponding Sudanese ministries and the private sector are developing several projects in order to achieve genuine partnership between the nations in these domains.
Al-Jazz added that the committee had previously received a Chinese company that expressed interest to invest in the free trade zone on the Red Sea coast, pointing to the railway project to connect Port Sudan with the Senegalese capital, Dakar which would be implemented in partnership with Chad.
He further underscored that the committee is following up on the implementation of the new airport project and the integrated slaughterhouse which would begin soon.
China has been Sudan’s largest foreign investor particularly in oil and telecommunications after western firms shunned the East African nation due to conflicts and sanctions.
In 2013, the then Sudan’s minister of agriculture Abdel Halim al-Mutafi, announced that his government signed an agricultural cooperation agreement with Beijing which gives Chinese companies several options to operate in Sudan.
On 17 August, speaker of Gazira state Legislative Council disclosed the Sudanese government and Chinese companies have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) allowing the latter to grow one million feddans of cotton in Sudan.
(ST)