By IPS Correspondents
WASHINGTON, Feb 27 2008 (IPS)

Business lobbies and groups opposed to the Sudanese government are seeking to drum up investment in Southern Sudan, once a front in efforts to install a more pro-U.S. regime in Khartoum.

Groups promoting business engagement say commerce will ensure stability in and beyond the war-torn territory.

“Engagement in Southern Sudan can help lift the region’s people and its economy out of the turmoil and have positive effects to stabilise the entire country,” said Adam Sterling, director of the Sudan Divestment Task Force, a member of the Genocide Intervention Network.

In Southern Sudan, the U.S.-based network of students’, rights, and religious groups opposed to violence in Darfur has found common ground with the National Foreign Trade Council business lobby and USA Engage, a trade association opposed to unilateral U.S. sanctions.

U.S. businesses and individuals are barred from doing business with Sudan, the government of which the United States accuses of genocide in the western region of Darfur.

The ban does not extend to Southern Sudan, which won autonomy in 2005, after the signing of a peace agreement between the central government and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).

“U.S. government sanctions are fairly nuanced in this regard and there is an important distinction that allows trade and investment by international businesses and donors,” added Colvin.

Under the 2005 peace deal, the SPLA formed a government in the Southern Sudan city of Juba. The SPLA chief serves as the territory’s president and as Sudan’s senior vice president. Full independence from Khartoum could follow a referendum scheduled for 2011. From the perspective of the territory’s governors, economic viability is an essential ingredient of political success.

“We need the support of the international business community, and the government of Southern Sudan is appealing to the international community, specifically the United States, to engage in foreign direct investment,” said Deng Deng Nhial, trade and investment officer at the government of Southern Sudan’s mission here.

“Engagement is the important part, and one company going in sends the signal to investors that the environment is conducive for investment,” Nhial added.

Industries ripe for growth include agriculture, fisheries, construction, transportation, hospitality and eco-tourism, among others, Nhial said. At present, only small and mid-sized U.S. companies have a presence in Southern Sudan, he added, as few here seem to know that they can do business in the territory.

“I’ve received numerous inquiries from NGOs and companies that want to operate in Southern Sudan but did not know they could,” Nhial said, referring to non-governmental organisations.

Southern Sudan also is hamstrung by its relative inaccessibility. Roads connecting the landlocked territory to the Kenyan port of Mombasa are being built with financing from the United Nations and the U.S. Agency for International Development, and these literally would pave the way to trade opportunities with the rest of the world, said Nhial.

Since 2005, Southern Sudan has received hundreds of millions of dollars in international aid money and in profits from Sudan’s booming oil industry but there has been little development to show for it.

Officials in the territory have blamed this on the North’s legacy of neglect and the ravages of a 40-year civil war that claimed some two million lives – about 10 times the death toll in Darfur. Diplomatic and Sudanese opposition sources, however, have said much of the money has been misspent or lost to corruption.

Additionally, Juba and Khartoum have built up their forces in case another war breaks out. This, although the sides were supposed to have emerged from the peace process as partners in a new, unified Sudan.

Southern Sudan’s prospects suffered another blow in July 2005, when John Garang, the SPLA leader, peace accord architect, and first president of the territory, died in a helicopter crash blamed on bad weather.

In 1996, Washington funneled nearly 20 million dollars worth of military equipment through Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Uganda to help the Sudanese opposition overthrow the government of President Omar al-Bashir. U.S. officials quoted at the time denied the aid was destined for the SPLA despite media reports to the contrary.

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