VZCZCXRO9993
PP RUEHROV
DE RUEHKH #0883/01 2110938
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 300938Z JUL 09 ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4165
INFO RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHBT/USIA VOA UDORN PRIORITY 0001
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY 0129
RHMFISS/CJTF HOA PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 KHARTOUM 000883 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR SE GRATION, S/USSES, AF A/S CARSON, AF/E, EEB/IFD, 
EEB/CBA, EEB/ESC, INR/AF 
NSC FOR MGAVIN 
DEPT PLS PASS USAID FOR AFR/SUDAN 
DEPT PLS PASS TREASURY FOR OIA AND OFAC/LFARROW 
DEPT PLS PASS DEFENSE OSD/AF 
ADDIS ABABA ALSO FOR USAU 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV ECON EINV EAGR ETRD AU UNSC SU
SUBJECT: SECOND TRADE/INVESTMENT DELEGATION YIELDS GAINS IN 
THE SOUTH 
 
¶1. (U) SUMMARY: The July 2009 Trade and Investment Delegation 
(TradeDel), focused on investment opportunities the 
agricultural sector has generated interest by American 
investors in at least nine potentially viable agricultural 
projects, and garnered political capital for the US 
Government in the South.  The program coincided with the 
announcement of dividends from the earlier September 2008 
TradeDEl: Citibank signed contracts with both the Bank of 
Southern Sudan and the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) on 
July 17 to provide financial and banking services to each 
entity.  Citibank has committed to providing Juba with dollar 
stock at two-thirds the cost of various East African regional 
banks -- an important lifeline that may help the GOSS emerge 
more swiftly from its present financial crisis. END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (SBU) ConGen Juba hosted CEOs and Senior Vice Presidents 
from fourteen corporations, agriculture-oriented NGOs, and 
American universities during the July 12-19 TradeDel. 
Funding to support the initiative -- which included a 
four-day tour to six of the South's ten states -- was 
provided by the State Department Bureau of Economic Affairs, 
the U.S. Department of Defense's Expeditionary Business 
Taskforce and the USAID/Sudan Economic Growth Program.  Site 
visits included the state capitals of Jonglei, Eastern 
Equatoria, Western Equatoria, Central Equatoria, Lakes, and 
Upper Nile States, and to the county capitals of Renk and 
Nzara (Upper Nile and WEQ states, respectively.)  GOSS Vice 
President Dr. Riek Machar Teny, Finance Minister David Deng 
Athorbei and Undersecretary Aggrey Tissa, Agriculture 
Minister Dr. Samson Kwaje, Roads/Transport Minister Anthony 
Lino Makana, Commerce/Investment Minister Dr. Barnabas Marial 
Benjamin, Animal Resources Minister Dr. Festo Kumbu, and Bank 
of Southern Sudan President Elijiah Malok briefed on 
opportunities for investment in Southern Sudan during a 
four-hour GOSS seminar that included time for TradeDel 
participants to ask questions directly of the Vice President. 
 First Vice President Salva Kiir Mayardit canceled his 
attendance due to unplanned travel by President Bashir that 
required Kiir to go in Khartoum to serve as Acting President 
of the Republic, (NOTE: Copies of GOSS presentations have 
been e-mailed to S/USSES and USAID/EG. END NOTE.) 
 
¶3. (U) Staff from the GOSS Ministry of Commerce and 
Investment joined nearly sixty Southern Sudan Legislative 
Assembly MPs, Southern Sudan Investment Authority staffers, 
Southern Sudan Chamber of Commerce members, Commerce Minister 
Benjamin, Cabinet Affairs Minister Luka Tombe Monoja, and 
Minister for Presidential Affairs Dr. Luka Biong Deng for the 
kick-off reception.  Not only did the event provide for ample 
interaction between TradeDel participants and enthusiastic 
GOSS and private sector interlocutors, but also it provided a 
venue to informally celebrate the delegation's first major 
success on just day two of the program -- Case New Holland's 
sale of fifty tractors to the Central Equatoria State 
Government. 
 
----------------------------------- 
JONGLEI AND EASTERN EQUATORIA STATE 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) Jonglei Acting Governor Hissein Mar convened his 
Council of Ministers to brief TradeDel participants on 
investment opportunities in his state, with Mar briefing on 
combined GOSS/state-level efforts to restore security 
following weeks of tribal clashes.  Jonglei is one-quarter 
the size of Germany, and has only 34 km of roads, none of 
which are paved.  The fledgling capacity of a graying, 
ill-equipped, and largely uneducated police force, outgunned 
and outmanned by the civilian population, has rendered 
"security" a term of art.  The SPLA will begin forced 
disarmament of the state's civilian population in Jonglei in 
October. 
 
¶5.  (U) Some in Bor have seized on the state's security 
challenges, which Mar maintained the rainy season had 
tempered considerably, as an opportunity for investment. The 
state's Agricultural Advisor and county commissioners from 
the state's hardest hit counties briefed the TradeDel on 
their draft proposal for an agricultural buffer zone in 
 
KHARTOUM 00000883  002 OF 006 
 
 
Jonglei.  The proposal, which invites investors to 
participate in a three million hectare farming scheme 
situated between primary Bor Dinka, Nuer, and Murle 
population centers, would create alternative livelihoods for 
the state's pastoralist communities while physically 
separating clashing factions.  Jonglei is prepared to provide 
the land gratis to investors who come forward with a viable 
hub-and-scope farming concept.  The Agricultural Advisor 
opined that the land could be best-utilized for cereal, maize 
crops, or cotton production. However, Acting Governor Mar 
commented that discussions were still ongoing with relevant 
GOSS ministries in Juba about which crops would be best 
suited for the area, given its proximity to key migratory 
paths for wildlife moving between Boma and Mangalla 
conservancy areas. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Seizing on information provided by Jonglei's 
Minister for Animal Resources and Fisheries, however, most 
TradeDel participants took note of the state's abundance of 
fish stock and the current challenge of market access. Joint 
Aid Management (JAM) Group CEO Peter Pretorious told Acting 
Consul General on July 16 that he intended to construct a 
fish canning/processing facility on the outskirts of Bor 
focused on local resale and regional export.  Agility VP for 
Africa Deanne Devries (also a TradeDel participant) discussed 
partnering on the initiative, with Agility providing 
logistics support for JAM Group's refrigeration, storage, and 
shipping needs.  Pretorious expected to be able to break 
ground on construction in October, barring negative 
discoveries during a follow-on assessment mission to be 
conducted by JAM in late August/September.  The CEO believed 
that a return on investment within nine-months was possible. 
"This is one of the most exciting possibilities for me on 
this trip -- I had no idea such potential was here." 
 
¶7. (SBU) TradeDel participants commented that the state 
leadership's vision and enthusiasm for Jonglei's potential 
development and investment opportunities significantly 
trumped constraints posed by the state's absence of 
infrastructure and its security challenges.  Lockheed Martin 
representative Beth Wolfram followed Jonglei's Minister for 
Gender and Social Welfare's briefing on the state's provision 
of free land in Bor market to women traders with a commitment 
to explore transferring empty PAE shipping containers from 
the newly-constructed SPLA Division Headquarters in Duar to 
Bor so that women could operate out of sheltered business 
stalls. 
 
¶8. (SBU) The delegation also traveled to the state's now 
defunct John Garang Institute for Science and Technology. 
Moldovan oil company Ascom launched the school in September 
2007 as a Community Development Fund-counterpart to its 
drilling in the Sudd.  Ascom representatives had agreed, at 
Governor Kuol Manieng's insistence, to matriculate four 
classes of 103 students each year through the school's 
science-oriented degree programs.  However, by March 2009, 
Ascom had reneged on the agreement, citing high operating 
costs and its inability to locate oil in the Sudd. (COMMENT: 
GOSS Minister for Energy and Mines John Luk Jok believes 
Ascom has found oil and is waiting for 2011 in order to 
negotiate better contract terms with an independent 
Government of Southern Sudan. END COMMENT.)  The institute, 
with its state of the art computerized language labs, 
computer classrooms, and well-equipped chemistry/biology labs 
now sit dormant.  Vacant tented dormitories serve as a 
reminder of the continued impediments to education in the 
South.  The Institute's launch in 2007 brought the number of 
universities operating in Southern Sudan to four, but Ascom's 
pullout, and February 2009 violence in Malakal, has since 
rduCed the number(of peRable`universi|iestotw_, (LOTE:MQTha ENmAR QcwvDjreg0akmdRk_!"aTcai.,izyrmCg4,QQ 
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