Could you give us a brief historical background on the Sudanese Development Corporation?
SDC was funded in 1975 with about 200 million paid capital. Since that time the corporation is involved in financing medium and long term projects whether they are agricultural, industrial or in any field; we either take part in the equity, to be shareholder in the equity, or we finance the equipment, like the capital equipment, or projects that can be very diverse as medical projects for instance. As I said, the Sudanese Development Corporation is getting equity in so many important projects such as in the Kenana Sugar industry, the biggest sugar factory in Sudan. We are also shareholders in Ariab mining. The Sudanese Development Corporation has acquired an expertise in viability studies. Sometimes we conduct viability studies for projects in the pipelines, we go outside and promote them to the investors' community. Our main goal is to promote long-term projects in the Sudan, and this is why the Sudanese Development Corporation acts as a link between foreign and local investors. SDC is preparing projects according to the need of the country. Through these long 25 years we have had a good experience with the international institutions. We are now a member of the Islamic Development Bank, and member of the African Development Bank; we are member of most international institutions. So this is Sudan Development corporation, this is how we work, how we have our external relations, we have our own separate identity; we have our own Board of Directors with the President, the head of this corporation, although the Finance Minister is now more responsible for this corporation.
What has been your strategy to fill the gap between Sudan and the international financial institutions over the last decade?
We used to get technical assistance and training from western companies and institutions, now we go to the Far East where we get the same technical assistance. We receive the same training for our people, and we have so many investors coming nowadays from the Far East, Malaysia, Pakistan, India and even from the Gulf, from Saudi Arabia, from Dubai and the Emirates. So we came through, and over the past 3 years the relations between Sudan and these countries are normalizing, even with the IMF and the World Bank, even with the Arab, Saudi and Kuwaiti banks. Our relations also with the African Development Bank as a developing corporation are good. For finance we have our money, but it's not enough, we need additional credit lines to properly work with investors. We have succeeded in encouraging some of those foreign investors
What measures have you taken to further strengthen your relations with the Asian business community?
Our relation started with these Asian institutions and businessmen in 1995, when we first established a Sudanese link with Malaysia. Since that time the investment of the Malaysians came to Sudan, and they are now the main shareholders in these oil projects; they are actually moving into many fields such as electricity for instance. Then there are other projects too. We used to go to Kuala Lumpur, India, Pakistan to promote our projects, and many of them were accepted because we provided them with detailed projects. Our diplomatic channels are also involved in the promotion of such projects.
What are currently the most promising investment opportunities?
Although there is oil, I think Sudan's potentiality lies in agriculture or agro-industry. In Sudan we have a lot of raw materials, we have a lot of vegetables; Sudan exports a lot of concentrate for different types of agricultural products.
Can you name some of the best performing projects you are currently involved in, and may be some future ones you would like to implement?
You know we have shared equity in some projects and they may be considered the most successful projects - like Kenana, for example. Kenana is the best sugar industry getting profit for the Saudi government, the Sudanese government and the Kuwaiti one. Yesterday I read an article where it was stated that Kenana produces more than 403.000 tons ! We are also shareholders in Ariab companies, the joint venture between a French company and the Sudanese government. We are now organizing several projects, which are going well, so that we can privatize them; we can sell them and any coming shareholder is welcome. The new projects should be export oriented or based on import substitutions. We are encouraging people to make more storages. This is what is needed for the Sudan, because you know Sudan is a big country and has many different products in different seasons, so we should have some cold stores. We encourage the private sector to enter into cold stores, to enter the pipe sector, and to enter the oil products and they can gain from it.
| What are the implications of Islamic Banking when financing a project?
We finance according to Islamic laws. I give you equity, I can enter with the same equity but you have a limit, not by the Islamic but by the law of the Corporation: we do not get more than 25% of the shares because we do not want the corporation to be sole owner of the project. Another rule is that we can do financing due to something call Murabaha. For example, you tell me that you want some equipments for the factory, I go myself, I open the L/C, I bring you all the equipment and then I come to you and when we make the contract you take to me the capital and then a share of the Murabaha. I can say: I give you 100 million dollar, and then I tell you that I want 10% or something like this, but this is the difference between the rate of interest and the Islamic form. It is the same thing but you have to give the commodity to somebody who wants it, but in the rate of interest you pay to me every year 10% whether you buy a commodity, you buy a house, etc., but here I give it for something specific and after I give you the commodity in your hand (it should be hand to hand)…
You may agree that the main economic problem Sudan is facing is how to deal with the external debt. Do you expect negotiations to ease with foreign creditors if Sudan moves towards a normalization of its international relations with Western countries?
The debt issue is the worst headache for the African countries, for developing countries, because sometimes you have to pay back 70-80% of your export revenues to the debt. The western countries, the IMF and the World Bank are now trying to help these poor countries cancelling most of their debts, and Sudan is one of them. Sudan has normalized its relations with the IMF, World Bank, Arab funds, OPIC and IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development) four or five years ago, and we are telling them that the debt issue is a big burden. We have to think of a formula. It's a headache not only for us, but also for all developing countries and it's preventing them from more development. How can you revert poverty if you have no funds? All the world, especially the African countries, are crying from the burden of the debts, not for us but for the coming generations. So, coming back to your question, I think Sudan is going to improve its international relations with the international financial institutions. I think Sudan is currently paying a lot of money, as a contribution, to international institutions to keep him as a member. The developed world should be practical, not just big in the newspaper and multimedia and telling that yes, we appreciate these poor countries, we have to relieve them from poverty, we have to help them with AIDS, yes but be practical and bring the money. So, the conclusion is that the best thing is that the international community takes care of the developing countries, putting out the debts. But sometimes politics interfere in it, when you exclude Sudan, Liberia and Somalia as they did last year. We are looking for the developed countries, rich countries, industrialized countries to help these countries, so that they can produce and export, so that you can have more projects and more development and they can take care of the poverty.
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