Business
South Sudan aggressively pitching for investors in multiple sectors
Shah said improved inputs such as hybrid seeds for maize(corn) and more nutritious varieties of sweet potatoes could boost farmer output by as much as 300 percent, securing South Sudan’s own food supplies and opening the possibility of future food exports in a region plagued by recurring famine.
Despite the potential, South Sudan remains shadowed by its northern neighbor Sudan, which remains subject to U.S. sanctions and has seen its own economy nosedive after the South’s secession.
Princeton Lyman, the U.S. special envoy who helped shepherd South Sudan to independence after a referendum last January, said the international community would keep up pressure on both sides to resolve disputes, including over oil revenues.
But he said the conflict in border areas including Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states, where there have been allegations of human rights abuses, made it unlikely that Khartoum would soon get the economic help it needed, throwing a question mark over efforts to stabilize the broader region.
“What we have been saying to them is you’ve got to get back to resolving these conflicts at the negotiating table so people can turn to the economic situation,” Lyman told Reuters.
“Unfortunately I think there are people in the regime who are taking a very military approach to these conflicts.”
