India announces aid for Sudan
OSLO, Apr 13, 2005 (AsiaPulse) — India today announced a contribution of US US$10 million for phase one of Sudan’s reconstruction besides concessional credit lines worth US US$100 million.
Addressing the Donors’ Conference on Sudan in Oslo, Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamad said the African country needs generous support of the international community for greater integration in its reconstruction efforts and capacity building in a number of sectors.
“India will continue to work with Sudan in the path of further political devolution, economic progress and accelerated development in keeping with our traditional good relations with Sudan,” he said.
He said India pledged US$10 million for the first phase of Sudan’s reconstruction as envisaged by a Joint Assessment Mission.
The modalities may be worked out in due course for effective utilisation of this amount, Ahamad said.
“Our preference would be to use this assistance for infrastructure, capacity building and social sector projects such as hospitals and educational institutions across the country,” the minister said.
In addition, he said, India offers Sudan concessional credit lines of US$100 million for specific projects in the north and south that can be identified in consultation with the Sudanese government later in the year.
This will be in addition to the bilateral assistance under the South-South Technical Assistance Programme.
(PTI)