Business
South Sudan aggressively pitching for investors in multiple sectors
(Reuters) – South Sudan makes its debut for western oil companies, aid organizations and agribusiness this week at a U.S.-backed conference aimed at setting Africa’s newest country on the path to economic development after decades of poverty and conflict.
South Sudan President Salva Kiir will lead the official delegation to the Washington meeting, which comes just days after the U.S. Treasury eased sanctions to permit foreign investment in the country’s oil sector.
Kiir will address the conference on Wednesday and is expected to lay out his plans to regulate investments, organize public finances and boost the transparency of oil revenue management to entice western oil majors such as Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil and Chevron.
“We’re seeing a strong outpouring of interest amongst investment partners in the private sector in their oil economy,” said Rajiv Shah, head of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the chief sponsor of the conference.
“I expect you will see significant private investment in the sector, which is why it is important that South Sudan abide by international norms around transparency and makes sure that the proceeds of those investments are invested back to improve the lives of the people,” Shah told Reuters in an interview.
The two-day Washington meeting, which will also be addressed by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, represents the Obama administration’s effort to jump-start the economy of South Sudan after its independence from Khartoum in July.
South Sudan accounts for around 75 percent of the formerly united country’s 500,000 barrels per day of oil output. Oil revenues could make it one of the wealthiest countries in the region – at least on paper.
But South Sudan and Sudan still face disputes over sharing oil revenues and ending fighting in a border region, keeping tensions high between the two neighbors which fought a civil war for decades before agreeing to a peace deal in 2005.
