What were the reasons behind the diversification process you undertook?
Yes, traditionally pension funds deal with money markets. In developing countries, the money market is not developed enough to absorb all the needs that you have, and for this reason you have to enter in the goods market. We started in 1995 by establishing first of all the trading company, dealing with internal trade and exports of different goods and services that are needed by our economy. In 1998 when oil became reality, we started studying how we could make use of it. We decided to establish a construction company; we are seeing that the future in Sudan is mainly concentrated on new constructions: roads, bridges, dams that are vital to the developing economy. There will be concentration of those kinds of businesses in the future; we have established this company and now it is ranked among the first companies with the capacity to service the present volume of work. We are not involved in the operation itself, but rather in the preparation of the land, the roads and the site preparations for the oil companies, the company also working on road rehabilitation on Khartoum - Medani road, Khartoum - Rabak road, and different roads in the Sudan.
This business is very promising because there are plans to construct dams to link Sudan with other different countries by bridges and irrigation projects that are vital for agricultural schemes - as you know we have a very good cultivated land. After that, we bought a skin tannery that started production in the beginning of March (2001), and we have made good contacts and contracts with the Italians because they are very good in this industry. Also the Spanish came here trying to make business with us. This tannery is one of the biggest tanneries in Sudan and until now we are proud that this factory has been the biggest for the last three years, and we have introduced new source of foreign currency in our economy. This is the developmental period. We can privatize or sell this company in the future…
What relation does your trading company has with Asian countries?
Sudan is mainly producing agricultural products like sesame and ground nuts. China and India are the main exporters of sesame to the world market, for this kind of products we are competing each other not opposing each other. We see that we have good opportunities because Sudan is now a member of COMESA, which contains about 22 African countries. This means that Sudanese products can easily enter these African countries where we have a competitive advantage. Our industry is very famous in Africa for its quality, and we care a lot about the quality as compared to other African countries. The few industries we have, like cosmetics and drugs, find a good market in Africa. Sudanese sugar also is very famous in Kenya.
With the increasing interest in power generation, are you ready to move and expand your activity towards the energy sector and sign an agreement for instance with Asian companies?
Actually we have been approached not by an Asian company but by a European one. Their regional manager is in Dubai; he came to my office with Mr. Galal Digeer, who is now the minister of industry and they came together promoting a joint venture between their company and a Sudanese company to erect a large power plant. | Our construction company (Petrocost) has a joint venture with a very famous Malaysian construction company. The Chinese are most willing and offer good kind of services and commodities loans. The Koreans are more interested to produce through their local companies; they enter the Sudan since the early eighties. Daewoo has many investments in textile, tire, skin tannery and banking. Now they have familiarized themselves with the economy and they are ready to benefit from the expected jump in the economy. They came early and had connections. I think the time factor is vital for those who are interested to come, not to come late. This is a good time to come, if you wait you will face more competition and market niches will be rare.
The more profit you get, the more you can address social issues, is that correct?
We are doing our best to increase our revenue so that we can help our pensioners either directly from monthly pensions or by introducing a basket of social services. This service is not conventionally known within the social insurance funds; for example we care about the higher education expenses of pensioners' sons. All pensioners are now covered by the health insurance at the expense of the fund. We also make arrangements with the hospitals by providing assistance when it comes to some operations such as kidney transplantation or heart operation. We give them small loans for instance when they want to set up a business and for loans for over a two year period.
What are the effects of globalization on the Sudanese economy?
Globalization has two sides: the good side of it is that countries become near to each other, and you can have the news from everywhere in the world; but it has also another side of it, it has the social and religious aspects. Cultural differences between countries are very wide, and every country has its own cultural set of values and habits it cares about. Every society caring these habits is followed by generation after generation. Globalization means that if cultural influence came from different cultures then I don't know if this will change the norm, the habits and the life of the people. But I think the globalization changes also business, and the developing countries are not in the position to compete at good footing with developed countries that have better technology. Developing countries have to develop their marketing and promotions techniques, their products to be in a position to compete everywhere in the world. In developing countries, if globalization happens, we will not be in a position to compete even in the local market, because the goods will come from everywhere, and then saturate the market. I think the base of this globalization should, has to slow down. I think we have to protect our identity in such aggressive environment. We will succeed.
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