South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Awan Achiek
The Ministry of Finance and Planning on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding paving the way for the country to become a member of the Macroeconomic and Fiscal Management Institute of Eastern and Southern Africa.
The Governor of the Bank of South Sudan, Dr. James Alic Garang inked in Juba the MoU on behalf of the government in the presence of Dr. Louis Kasekende, Executive Director for Macroeconomic and Fiscal Management Institute.
Agok Makur Kur, Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning said the institute will help in building human and institutional capacities.
“We know that to be a part of this macroeconomic and finance management institute, we will benefit as South Sudan especially in the Ministry of Finance and Central Bank in terms of capacity building and human resources,” Makur said during the signing ceremony.
Makur said that through training and capacity building, the country will make good use of its resources.
South Sudan is the latest member 15 member regional macroeconomic institute.
For his part, Dr. James Alic Garang, Governor of the Bank of South Sudan said South Sudanese officials will be trained on debt transparency, debt management and debt recording.
“I was impressed yesterday, when you talked about the cohort that is coming, the 13 cohort of fellows who will be trained for 18 months and they become experts in their respective fields,” Garang said.
Garang said the country has joined an institute that has done so much work in Southern Africa.
Dr. Louis Austin Kasekende, Executive Director for Macroeconomic and Financial Management Institute of Eastern and Southern Africa (MEDMI), said they will build sustainable human and institutional capacity in the country.
“We have tools that we use to respond, we can have what we call regional workshops where several countries come today, and we also have in-country where we send in a team to a country,” Kasekende said.
He noted that the institute will help foster best practices for prudent macroeconomic and financial management to boost economic growth and poverty reduction.
“Especially in this case, where the governor has pointed out that the training needs a menu, and once we identify their training needs we will send a team and you can have 10 or 20 people to be trained,” Kasekende said.
This institute was first established in 1994 under the name Eastern and Southern Africa Initiative in Debt and Reserves Management, and later renamed in 1997 as Macroeconomic and Fiscal Management Institute of Eastern and Southern Africa.
