South Sudan’s minister of Roads and Bridges, Gier Chuang Aluong, has announced the government’s plan to connect South Sudan and the neighbouring Kenya with a highway in order to boost economic activities between the two sisterly nations.
The highway, he told the press on Saturday, will connect Juba, the new country’s capital, and Nadipal on the countries’ common border.
Aluong further explained the importance of the project, saying it will be “economically viable” and boost economic activities as it will allow commodities to be ferried from the Kenyan port of Mombasa into South Sudan in big volumes over a short period.
Currently South Sudan is a consumer country which exports almost nothing to the outside world besides the oil and imports almost every commodity including agricultural products and livestock for meat from the neighbouring countries.
Aluong said the plan will be supported jointly with the World Bank and the Kenyan government, saying a meeting has already been held by the three bodies to implement the project.
The highway project, which he said will be implemented in 2013, will be the second all-weather asphalted highway after the over 100 kilometres Juba-Nimule road, which was the first highway in South Sudan inaugurated last month.
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