South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Okech Francis
Mirzan Mahathir, the son of Mahathir Mohamad, former Malaysian Prime Minister has unveiled plans to invest $100 million in a cement factory in South Sudan’s capital Juba.
Mahathir will use his investment firm, B SMART Malaysian East African Company to invest in the plant, he told reporters in Juba on Monday.
“Our proposal is to set up a cement factory close to Juba, Juba being the main market for cement so it is a good location for us precisely outside Juba and the materials will be coming from Kapoeta where the raw material is,” Mahathir said.
“We are locating $100 million for this project, of cause subject to us revising as we move on but for now we are budgeting $100 million,” he said.
“If the approvals all come in time, we will be able to set up in 24 months and then from there we can proceed to deliver to the local market,” he said.
The cement plant will mitigate reliance on imports from neighboring countries and speed up infrastructure development in South Sudan, Kuol Daniel Ayulo, the first undersecretary at the Ministry of Trade and Industry said.
“As a country, we have been relying on imports of cement from Uganda, from Kenya but today we want to inform the public, we want to inform our communities across the country that the Ministry of Trade is hosting this event with our investor so that we are able to launch the program soon,” Ayulo said.
“They are building a big factory that will be producing enough quantity of cement that will enable our people to contribute effectively in the development of the country.”
