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US ‘terror’ listing blocks Sudan’s economic revival
KHARTOUM, Oct 12, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Sudanese businessman Samir Gasim was
delighted when Washington dropped sanctions against Sudan a year ago, but
since then, mounting losses have forced him to lay off dozens of workers at
his Khartoum factory.
“We are now operating our factory for only eight hours, compared with 24
hours before,” said Gasim, a food and drinks manufacturer.
Many expected Sudan’s crisis-hit economy to recover after the US dropped a
tranche of decades-old sanctions on October 12 last year.
But businessmen say Washington’s decision to keep Khartoum on its list of
“state sponsors of terrorism” has doused those hopes.
“Our production costs increased and that forced us to lay off many
employees,” Gasim said.
Hundreds of factories have shut across Sudan, he added, as workers in
masks and gloves packed sweets into plastic bags at his facility on a dusty
Khartoum industrial complex.
Even while legal impediments to doing business with Sudan have been
removed with the dropping of sanctions, officials say international banks,
global financial institutions and investors remain wary of making commercial
transactions with the country due to the US blacklisting.
Osama Daoud Abdellatif, head of the Dal Group — Sudan’s biggest
conglomerate — said there were “lots of funds looking for good projects to
support”.
“The problem is they are restricted,” said the 67-year-old head of the
$1.5 billion group, which has interests in everything from farming to real
estate.
He said the US blacklisting prevents entrepreneurs from accessing global
resources, holding back Sudan’s recovery from a long-running economic
downturn.
“It is in the interest of Washington and Khartoum to get over this big
hurdle,” he told AFP at his lush green golf course on the outskirts of
Khartoum.
“Unfortunately, so many times the US changes the goal post, so it’s been
difficult to reach a final solution,” he said in English.
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Washington blacklisted Sudan in 1993 over its alleged links with Islamist
extremists, and in 1998 it struck Khartoum with cruise missiles.
Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden lived in Sudan between 1992 to 1996.
– ‘Missed opportunity’ –
Sudan’s economic crisis has worsened since January, making long queues for
fuel, bread and other basic items a common sight on the streets of Khartoum.
The country’s US blacklisting has directly caused foreign currency
shortages as foreign banks avoid transactions with Sudanese counterparts,
compounding the crisis.
Sudan’s economic growth averaged over six percent a year during the decade
to 2008, but it has since flopped.
The crisis has accelerated since 2011, when oil-rich South Sudan won
independence from Khartoum, dealing a blow to the north’s crude sales and
foreign exchange reserves.
Burdened with foreign debts worth about $55 billion, Sudan’s economy grew
3.2 percent in 2017, according to the International Monetary Fund.
Food prices have more than doubled since January as inflation has hit
almost 70 percent, triggering sporadic anti-government protests.
“The trade deficit is 60 percent, which is huge, and this is directly
reflected in the devaluation of Sudanese pound,” said Ahmed Amin Abdellatif,
president of the CTC Group, another conglomerate.
Removing the country from Washington’s blacklist would be a signal that
overseas investors can “now support Sudan”, he said.
But the Dal Group chief said the country’s economic woes were not
Washington’s doing alone, as Sudan itself “missed an opportunity” to promote
growth when it enjoyed an oil bonanza.
“I think we could have done more in the agriculture sector from the income
we were enjoying from oil,” he said.
– US push –
Once a major exporter of agricultural products, Sudan now imports millions
of tonnes a year of wheat and other grains.
It still has some 120 million head of livestock and reserves of gold and
iron.
But Washington’s top envoy to Khartoum, Steven Koutsis, told AFP the road
ahead remains tough.
He acknowledged that the US blacklisting had restricted economic growth,
but insisted that Sudan also made “bad economic choices over the years”.
“From the US side, the biggest and the most important thing you can do is
to get to a place where you can have Sudan removed from the list of state
sponsor of terrorism,” he told AFP at the US mission in Khartoum.
“Part of my agenda while I am here is to help Sudan meet the conditions”
required, he said.
Dal Group tycoon Abdellatif said that in the meantime, Sudan needs to
undertake big reforms on its own, like erasing disparities between the
official and unofficial foreign currency markets.
“Only good words are not going to help people,” the veteran businessman
said.
“We have to find ways to support them. The last thing you want is hungry
people.”
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