A Qatari Forum for Investment in Sudan…a Step to Revive Economy

Report – Rehab Abdullah

Economic circles welcomed Qatar’s announcement that it will host an economic forum in which investment in Sudan will be proposed, which was announced by the Assistant Undersecretary for Economic Affairs at the Qatari Ministry of Finance, Saud Bin Abdullah Al-Attiyah, on behalf of the Qatari government, during a meeting with the Sudanese Minister of Finance, Dr. Jibril Ibrahim, on the sidelines of the preparatory meetings for the 33rd meeting of the Arab League Economic Council, hosted by Bahrain.
Qatar is investing $4 billion in Sudan, through 40 agricultural, tourism and real estate projects, according to official Sudanese data.
The possibility of making the forum a success
The Deputy Director of the Sudan University of Science and Technology, economic expert Professor Abdel-Azim Al-Mahal, confirmed the possibility of Qatar making the Investment Forum in Sudan, which was arranged to be held in Qatar, a success. Al-Muhall told (-
) “Although the time is not appropriate to hold a forum conference for investment in Sudan, Qatar is known that if it resolves to do something, it will implement it, and Qatar always contributes to it with the highest share and adopts major projects,” stressing Qatar’s ability to make the forum a success with the help of Turkey, Russia and some friendly countries, and he believed that the conference could be one of the important catalysts for peace in Sudan and the formation of a strong technocratic government without any political incubator.
Investment incentives
He stipulated the deadlines for the success of investment in Sudan to achieve peace, a strong security grip, and political stability, pointing out that no matter how attractive the incentives are and how attractive the investment law is, the most important investment incentives are political, security, and economic stability, as well as policy stability.
Al-Mahal advised early preparation, in a scientific manner, and far from political, regional, and racist fanaticism, to make this conference a success, in addition to presenting integrated studies for huge industrial and agricultural projects, infrastructure projects, information structures, and complete computerization to fight corruption.
Al-Mahall expressed his hope to reach huge partnerships with Qatar in various fields, noting that there are many ready-made studies that can be implemented in various fields.
Excellent step
For his part, the economic expert, Dr. Mohammad Al-Nayer, Qatar’s adoption of establishing an investment forum in Sudan is an excellent step, and in his speech to (Sudan Events) he called for the importance of the state forming a committee that determines the map of the Sudanese economy so that it is ready and prepared in advance. This committee includes reconstruction, counting the losses to which the Sudanese economy has been exposed, and other things, He added, “Qatar’s initiative to host an economic forum for investment in Sudan is a good thing,” and he considered it to lead to preparation for the next stage.
Preparing projects
Al-Nayer conditioned the success of the forum on Sudan’s readiness and preparation of all the projects that the Sudanese government needs and its priorities to be presented during this forum. He indicated the possibility of presenting these projects to all safe or stable states, and then there will be other projects in the coming stage after security and stability prevail in all parts of Sudan, pointing out that at the current stage, projects can be presented in safe and stable states and investment can be made in them urgently and quickly.
Investment feasibility
Al-Nayer stressed that foreign direct investment is one of the factors that help in the flow of foreign exchange into the country through establishing projects and this increases the country’s foreign exchange earnings on the one hand and through the payment of the project capital to the central bank, and also helps reduce unemployment rates, which increased due to the war and the cessation of a very large number of jobs in the private sector during the last period, which is considered to confirm that investment increases job opportunities and reduces unemployment rates, as well as that it helps in achieving growth rates because investment, especially in agricultural, industrial and service production projects, contributes to Achieving growth rates. This would achieve positive growth rates in the economy and is a positive indicator.
Exchange of benefits
Al-Nayer believed that all of these things depend on the extent of Sudan’s readiness, preparing projects and presenting projects that find agreement between the two parties that meet the needs and requirements of Sudan and also meet the needs and requirements of the Qatari investor. He stressed that the initiative from the Qatari government is positive because the investment climate at the present time may not bring an investor on its own. The same, but when governments support investors or push investors to invest in a place, there is a response from Qatari investors to invest in Sudan.
He said, “the evidence is that Qatar’s role in supporting and assisting Sudan during the crises it was exposed to is very clear.”