Category: Economy

Economy

S.Sudan, Egypt to sign MoU on tax capacity building

The Minister of Finance and Planning is set to sign a memorandum of understanding with his Egyptian counterpart on capacity building, tax and non-oil revenue collections and management.

South Sudan’s Ministers Dr Bak Barnaba Bak and Egypt’s Ambassador Mohammed Almoatez revealed this following a meeting on Thursday.

It’s not clear when the two Finance Ministries will ink the cooperation agreement, but Minister Dr Barnaba says this will take place as soon as he goes.

“We will sign it when I go to Egypt. His Excellence as the Minister of Finance was here. He came to attend the National Economic Conference. We were so glad he was the only national minister of a neighboring country who came.

“We agreed during the short period of his office visit to sign a memorandum on a number of issues in addition to tax, non-oil revenue collection, and management.

“There were also agreements on technical and capacity building in the Ministry of Finance and several areas that are now outstanding. And we will go to Egypt very soon to sign the cooperation.”

Egyptian Ambassador to South Sudan Moatez Mostafa accompanied by diplomatic attaché/ Elsaid Ezzat, a member of the embassy, said Thursday’s meeting was to follow up on bilateral cooperation between the two countries in various fields.

The other, he says, is to prepare for the trip of South Sudan Finance Minister Barnaba for the signing of the MoU as soon as possible.

According to him, the cooperation deal will be on taxation and the other one on how to cooperate in capacity building of South Sudan finance institution.

” We will start capacity building with the Ministry of Finance and Planning here in South Sudan as we are helping and supporting all the ministries in South Sudan.

“As His Excellency mentioned we are preparing his visit as soon as possible to Egypt to sign a memo on taxation and the other one on how to cooperate in the two ministries in Egypt and here in South Sudan,” he said.

Ambassador Mostfa said Egypt with South Sudan Ministry of Finance has been for a long period.

The expected deal follows the participation of Egyptian Finance Minister Mohammed Maait in the recently concluded South Sudan 1st Economic Conference last week.

 

Western diplomats expect more contribution from unity govt to humanitarian sector

Embassies of the Western world in Juba have called on the transitional government to increase its financial contribution to the humanitarian effort to ease suffering and save lives in South Sudan.

They include the Embassies of Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Delegation of the European Union.

In a joint statement on Wednesday, the group says the international community has provided more than 1 billion US dollars in humanitarian assistance in South Sudan this year alone.

But despite this, they said ‘ We are all appalled by the conflict in Sudan which has created dire additional humanitarian needs and has placed an extra burden on the South Sudanese people.”

According to them, the transitional government is yet to take concrete steps to reduce the costs of delivering aid, exacerbated by checkpoints and other illicit efforts to extract revenue from humanitarian aid operations.

The diplomatic missions say they “expect the transitional government to be a full partner in the effort to ease suffering and save lives in South Sudan by increasing its financial contribution to the humanitarian effort.”

The diplomats also stressed that ending the humanitarian crisis requires an environment conducive to substantial economic growth and reduced dependency.

“Such an environment will only be possible if the transitional government meets its peace commitments, introduces transparency and accountability, and prioritizes the use of public revenue to meet public needs.”

 

 

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