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S. Sudan opposition warns against oil dependency

08 September 2011 21:15 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Newly-independent South Sudan’s opposition warned Thursday of rising inflation and food shortages caused by the government’s dependence on oil revenues and failure to develop other sectors, APA reports quoting AFP.

"This inflation is caused by non-productivity in all parts of the country. We are not producing enough food for ourselves. We are not exporting anything at all to bring hard currency to our side besides oil," the chief opposition whip in the National Assembly, Andrew Mayom, told AFP.

"We thought this oil money would have been used or invested mostly in agriculture, tourism, to improve the economy so that they become revenue generating sources to the country."

"We are saying in the opposition that the country should not rely on the oil money alone," he said.

South Sudan, which won independence from the north on July 9, is one of the least developed countries in the world, after decades of conflict with Khartoum that left the region in ruins.

But it is home to around three quarters of the old Sudan’s crude reserves, and more than 95 percent of Juba’s income currently comes from oil receipts.

However, the fledgling nation borders Kenya and Ethiopia, both badly affected by the devastating famine sweeping the Horn of Africa, which has created greater scarcity in the region and stoked already high domestic food prices.

Mayom said the lack of agreement between Juba and Khartoum on how much the south should pay for renting the north’s pipeline -- one of the key outsanding issue that the two sides failed to resolve ahead of partition -- also made South Sudan vulnerable to inflation.

"To me, it will worsen and all the time you will get tension between Juba and Khartoum. We will also be embarrassed if Khartoum decides to close their oil pipelines," he added.

He also repeated recent criticism of the government of South Sudan for being too big, and spending money on ministers’ salaries that should be spent on public services.

Other prominent opposition figures have strongly objected to the number of ministers approved by parliament last week -- 56, including 27 deputy ministers -- in such a poor country, where corruption is rampant.