Two Sudans: The need for cooperation & coordination

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Friday that South Sudan needs a lasting peace with Sudan in order to meet major challenges such as weak state institutions and a lack of infrastructure to unlock its economic potential, pointing out that South Sudan had sizeable economic potential due to oil, livestock, fishery, agricultural and forestry reserves.

“Major challenges will need to be overcome if this potential is to be realised. These challenge include institutional weaknesses, limited physical infrastructure and a weak human capital base,” the IMF said in its report.

For its part, the government of South Sudan affirmed its need to cooperate with the Sudanese government, expressing hopes that the two countries will courageously live up to commitments to usher in a lasting peace.

Speaking to Omdurman radio in the Radio Conference program aired on Friday, South Sudan Minister of Information, Barnaba Marial Benjamin, said that his country is in dire need for the Sudanese production materials due to the lack of productivity firms in the field of manufacturing in Juba, pointing out that Sudan one of the nearest countries to the Southern Sudan markets to sell its products.

Barnaba noted that the opening of the border will strengthen the agreement as people from both sides will resume trade and discuss issues of bilateral interest.

In fact, both countries need each other and would benefit from a stable political relationship and close economic ties to survive and to unlock their economic potential, and any opportunity for cooperation between Sudan and the nascent state of South Sudan should be given priority in order to enhance the mutual relations between the two states because it will be beneficial to the economic situation of both countries.

I wrote in this space before, that the current situation of both states requires more cooperation between the two countries. As it sets about building its infrastructure, the Republic of Southern Sudan will find a better partner in Sudan in terms of providing professional and vocational expertise, including teachers, engineers, doctors and agriculturalists that are more conversant with the issues of South Sudan because of the common denominators between people of the two states. 

These cadres can play a great role in building the new state, and as it is widely known that the Sudanese professionals have been contributing to building capacities in many Arab and African countries.

Taking practical steps towards dealing with this new reality is very important in order to build distinctive neighbourly relations based on coordination and cooperation to serve common interests between the two states.

 It is a high time for the two countries to move beyond reiteration of their positions to more substantive results and the two countries must not allow the derailment of normalization process as they need each other more than ever.