SUDAN'S WHITE NILE STATE OFFERS MANY OPPORTUNITIES

By R.RAVICHANDRAN

KUALA LUMPUR, May 19 (Bernama) -- The White Nile state of Sudan is looking
forward to investors from Malaysia, offering opportunities in the area of
construction, manufacturing, housing development, tourism, and industries
development.

The state's Governor Dr Mohamed Noorallah Eltigani said that the state
possessed some of the best advantages in terms of investment and doing business
in Sudan, which is Africa's largest country.

"Right now there are no Malaysian companies having investment in our
state. There are a lot of opportunities available and potential to be tapped,"
he told Bernama in an interview during a visit here leading a 11-member
delegation to promote the state.

Malaysia is Sudan's second most important economic partner after China and
one of its major investors. Petronas, the national oil corporation, is the
largest Malaysian company and a key player in Sudan's oil and gas industry while
more than 40 Malaysian companies are also operating in Sudan.

The White Nile state with an area of 39,600 sq km, is located strategically
in the middle of Sudan and is known as the bridge between the southern and
northern part of the vast country which has a total of 25 states.

Sudan's capital city, Khartoum is only about 40km from the White Nile
state's borders while Khartoum's new international airport is only about two
kilometres from the borders of the White Nile state.

"The White Nile state is considered to be a hub that links the different
parts of Sudan by pave roads, railway, and river transport," Mohamed Noorallah
said.

The governor explained further that a dry harbour has been built in the
state to enhance imports and exports. From the harbour, people can travel to
Juba and to the north, up to Egypt.

One major area where currently the state is lacking are good roads and
highways and towards this, Mohamed Noorallah said that Malaysian investors
could come in to build roads and highways to connect the state more efficiently,
to other parts of the country as well as within the state of 2.1 million people.

There is only one highway in the state, a 300km one-lane highway connecting
state capital Rabak to Khartoum.

"We need better highways and roads. The highway we have now is on the east
side of Nile River...we need another highway on the west side of the Nile
River," he said.

Mohamed Noorallah said that construction of highway could be on the method
of Built, Operate and Transfer (BOT).

Mohamed Noorallah explained that potential for investment were also huge in
the construction of houses, apartments and industrial buildings.

The very reason for this was that the rapidly developing Khartoum was
getting full with many modern buildings and housing development to accommodate
the needs of the capital city, following the many new development projects
there by local and foreign investors.

In this context, the state governor said availability of land was not a
problem.

In the tourism sector, Mohamed Noorallah said that opportunities for
investment were open in the construction of hotels, theme parks and golf
courses adding that there were not many hotels in the state.

Besides that, investors were also welcomed to tap the tourism potential of
the White Nile River, to among others, operate cruise and river transport along
the beautiful river.

The White Nile River runs through the state from south to north in the
length of 400km. The waterway of the White Nile River also connects to southern
towns of Malakal and Juba, which is the regional capital of southern Sudan.

The Blue and White Niles meet in Khartoum to form the River Nile, which
flows northwards through Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea.

Mohamed Noorallah said Malaysian investors could also look into the
possibility of investing in the manufacturing sector, as the state was lacking
in this important area.

He stressed that opportunities were available in the manufacturing of
spare parts for vehicles and machines. Besides that Malaysian investors are also
welcome to set-up plants to manufacture electrical and electronic goods and
computers and related industries.
-- BERNAMA