Juba, South Sudan, June 03, 2021 – The South Sudan government has urged the People’s Republic of China to invest in the private sector to spur the country’s economic growth.
Officials from the national and Central Equatoria State Chambers of Commerce told Chinese Ambassador to South Sudan Hua Ning that humanitarian organizations giving foreign aid to the country without proper investments have done more harm than good.
“I think when we are importing we need to have sufficient food to ourselves,” Mr. Ali Adam, Technical Advisor at the Central Equatoria Chamber of Commerce said.
Adam took a dig at United Nations agencies whose food security initiatives failed to drive South Sudan out of extreme hunger year in year out.
“We have these guys in town – World Food Programme, FAO, what…what. Are they taking us anywhere?” he questioned. “And they’re talking of billions and billions of money put in there. Just one-third of that money put in agriculture and the country will be food-sufficient.”
Adam said the informal sector of the country was being neglected yet it is the backbone of the national economic growth.
“Here we are not talking about a big [formal] business where if the manager is killed there is no work. Just support and empower these small businessmen here, the peasant farmers, and we can solve this problem. This is the area where we want intervention. If we have sufficiency in the food we can bring the surplus to the market,” he said.
“FAO was talking about value addition, I asked the director of FAO that ‘You’re adding value on what?’ You have the simsim, you don’t have groundnuts, you don’t have anything. This money is just there for workshops. This is where I feel something should be done,” Adam added.
The Technical Advisor also urged told the Chinese Ambassador Hua Ning that South Sudan also lacks investment in retail banking so that the state government can track the circulation of revenue.
Other states and national officials appealed to the government of China to develop the capacity of youths with Central Equatoria State and nationally.
Meanwhile, Amb. Ning said China will corporate with the government of South Sudan and support all developmental initiatives nationally and at state levels.
Delivering closing remarks, National Chamber of Commerce Second Deputy Chairperson Salwa Bakony Monytuel thanked the Chinese for their continued diplomatic and financial support to the government of South Sudan.
