South Sudan’s government in partnership with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) on Monday launched strategy to diversify trade in a bid to boost non-oil revenue earnings.
Simon Nyang, technical advisor for the ministry of trade and industry, said the Diagnostic Trade Integration Study (DTIS) Update Report, will help support national economic diversification agenda, increase investment in value added initiatives, and generate revenue from non-oil sector.
“Achieving expected outcomes, require complementary policies and strategies to support implementation of specific actions to stimulate sound investment for inclusive trade and private sector development,” Nyang said during the launching ceremony in Juba.
The top exports of South Sudan are crude petroleum, refined petroleum, forage crops, onions, and sheep and goat meat.
Titus Osundina, the UNDP deputy country representative in South Sudan, called for improving on the existing business environment in order to enable economic diversification.
“With implementation of the peace agreement, we see the private sector especially micro, small and medium size enterprises led by women and youth. We will work to increase the market access on opportunities through implementation of regional initiatives,” Osundina said.
“To reflect on the growing interest in integrated trade related policies, we seek to foster trade competitiveness and economic diversification, to develop e-commerce and tourism, improve on the business climate, and access to finance and development standards and quality infrastructure,” he added.
Yacoub Kenyi Leju, the head of procurement at the South Sudan national chamber of commerce, industry and agriculture, said there is need for the government to improve the business climate in order to attract foreign direct investment into the country.
“We have to create conducive environment here, so that our business people can do their business effectively and freely and that automatically will attract the rest of the investors. We cannot do business without the rest of the world,” Leju said.
The objective of the DTIS Updated Report is to provide an up-to-date trade integration policy document that can stimulate the development of trade for South Sudan’s goods and services.
The first DTIS was undertaken in 2014. It assessed South Sudan’s economy, identified key trade sectors, outlined constraints to trade, and presented an action matrix.
The study provided a key analytical foundation for policy recommendations and interventions for trade related technical assistance and capacity-building for greater trade and market integration of South Sudan into regional and global trade systems.
