South Sudan agrees on “general cooperation” with Saudi Arabia

Tapeng Michael Ohure

South Sudan has signed a cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia, including 9 cooperation areas.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Mayiik Ayii and his Saudi counterpart, Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud reached the deal on Monday in Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

Minister Ayii said the document signed with his Saudi counterpart focuses on areas of economic fields including industrial, petroleum, minerals, agriculture, livestock, tourism, sports and the health sector in the country.
“This General Cooperation Agreement between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Republic of South Sudan will now allow us fully to engage with a lot of institutions especially in the economic sector here in Saudi Arabia,” Ayii said.

“They want to come and invest in the Republic of South Sudan especially in the field of agriculture, infrastructure and so forth,” he said.

Ayii said committees will be formed to expedite on the issue of trade.

“We are now going to form joint technical committees between the two countries to work on the issues of trade,” he said.

Ayii said the agreement will encourage exchange of knowledge and technical expertise as well as promotion of investment, trade fairs and exhibitions and exchange visits by members of the contracting parties between the two countries.