Respected  international magazine The Economist  has ranked South Sudan number one in its annual list of growing world economies.

The Economist reported that in 2014 South Sudan will have the fastest growing economy in the world – with a 35 percent growth in its gross domestic product.

They attributed the achievement to the resumption of oil production after it was previously halted.

“The growth rate is good news, but the government has to make sure that we sustain this rate…because in economics, at 35%, if we could do it within two years, that is already 70%,” economist Pan Luel Wel, told Eye Radio. “Who knows where we might be in two years…in five years or ten years.”

Mr. Wel said the government should not  rely entirely  on oil as the main source of revenue.

“We have a lot of potential in other areas, you can talk of agriculture, and we have rich fertile land. It is arable, we have water, this is very important because everything depends on water, also our few industries,” he said. “We have to explore because we have to keep on improving on what we have and try to look for things that are still underground.”

Mr. Wel also said there is need for a reliable power supply to enable industrialization of the economy as that would greatly increase productive economic activities.