File: An investor forum organized in South Africa. Courtesy|

South Sudan is expected to launch an investment conference next year to attract foreign investors into the country, the Minister of Investment has said.

“The President proposed that the next year 2021 is going to be an investment year,” Dr. Dhieu Mathok declared.

The conference will avail the opportunity for investments in petroleum, mineral, gold, agriculture and livestock among others.

The first investors’ conference was organized at Freedom Hall in Juba 7 years ago. But the December 2013 conflict shattered the prospects.

According to the Minister of Investment, President Salva Kiir has now directed the economic cluster to start preparations for an investment forum next year.

“We agreed with the Vice President for the Economic Cluster that the ministry of investment will submit on Wednesday during the weekly meeting of the cluster a program of the ministry and the program for the investment year that is 2021,” Dr. Mathok told journalists in Juba, Monday.

In November 2013, more than 250 multinational companies attended the South Sudan Investment Conference in Juba to explore various sectors of the economy that requires financing.

The government announced that over 40 companies signed up to invest in South Sudan. Others were to later sign up.

The aim was to break the country’s over-dependence on oil revenue.

This is because South Sudan depends almost entirely on revenues from oil sales, accounting for 98 percent.

However, economists say the country contains many natural resources such as iron ore, copper, chromium ore, zinc, tungsten, mica, silver, gold, and hydropower.

South Sudan imports more than 90 percent of its food.

Although estimates suggest that at least 90 percent of South Sudan’s land is suitable for farming, only 4.5 percent of arable land is under cultivation.

Observers believe the country has the agricultural potential to become a regional breadbasket because of the White Nile valley -which is known as the most fertile land in Africa.

In 2011, the government said significant resources are needed for agricultural inputs like fertilizers, machinery to fully develop the sector.

It said the investment has the potential to support large-scale commercial farming and processing of cotton, sugarcane, wheat, and fruit.

But months later, the country plunged into a civil war which ended with the signing of the revitalized peace agreement in 2018.

Dr. Dhieu Mathok said the government intends on reclaiming the economy through private-public sector investment.

“The other ministries including the mining, petroleum, agriculture, livestock and fisheries and tourism; all these economic cluster ministries are going to take part, and even some of the service and infrastructure clusters, we want to identify the priorities of those ministries.”