Date : 23/01/2010
Sudan
By: Mona Shishter and Hussein Hassan (With photos)
KHARTOUM, Jan 23 (KUNA) -- The state of Kuwait always lent a hand to other
Arab brotherly countries whether at the governmental or popular levels, out of
belief in the importance of the Arab nationalism and the necessary
partnerships and economic projects supporting Arab and Muslim economy.
The Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) was the main
governmental body which helped funding a lot of projects and investment in the
Arab countries in what contributed to developing their economies, creating job
opportunities for citizens and providing them with a decent standard of living.
Examples on such Arab Kuwaiti partnerships are many, and mention but a few,
are the two projects of Sugar Kananah company and Marwi Dam at the brotherly
republic of Sudan which were reviewd by the Kuwaiti press journalist that
currently visit Sudan.
This delegation consists of some elements from the Kuwaiti Journalists
Association (KJA) and the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) and they are Adnan
Al-Rashed as the delegation's head, Sami Al-Nesif, Dr. Haila Al-Makimi, Mona
Shishtr, Khaled Maarfi and Dina Al-Tarah.
Kuwait's help on Sugar Kananah company project, which is a precious
treasure of Sudan and the biggest project of its kind for producing sugar all
over the world, led to its completion within four years in a location 1,200 k.
m. away from the nearest Sudanese port Portsudan.
Director General of the company Al-Milham Al-Taib said that the notion of
establishing such a project aimed at mixing the western expertise, Arab
financial resources with Sudan's natural resources represented in sun, fertile
lands, irrigation water in order to set up an industrial agricultural project
that brings many economic benefits to Sudan such as job creation, transfer of
advanced technology and doing away with sugar imports.
Al-Taib attributed Kananah's going ahead with its project despite many
difficuties to funding it received from some Arab countries, particularly, the
state of Kuwait, saying that, "Except for the support of both of Kuwaiti and
Saudi governments, we would not have been capable of clearing the designing
phase."
Al-Taib also recalled how the idea of this project came first to late
Sudanese president Jafaar Numeiri, businessman Roland Taini and Sudanese
businessman representing the Kuwaiti Gulf Company in Sudan Dr. Khalil Othman.
Kuwait pitched in 21 percent of the total capital of the project, in
addition to the funds provided by Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Arab company for
investment and development, the Social Development Bank and a group of
Sudanese commercial banks.
As for the Marwi dam project, resident Engineer of the project Mahjoub
Idris Khalil said that planning for setting up such a dam which will
officially be inaugurated next April started in 1940s and had the
comprehensive study on it in 1993 and 1994 with Sudanese president issuing a
decree setting up a unit for its implementation.
Engineer Khalil considered Marwi dam a takeoff for agriculture, industry,
electricity generation and an additional qualitative shift to the joint power
grid among Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia, pointing out that this dam is one of 22
others spanning the river Nile course. (end).
msh.hha.aff
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