Chuol Jany
The national Minister of Investment in South Sudan Dr. Dhieu Mathok has warned foreign companies to respect the Labor Act 2017 with the provision that provides 80% of jobs to South Sudanese and such acts shouldn’t be compromised.
This came during the one-day Symposium on Jobs Creation and Trade Development in South Sudan being organized by the Ministry of Trade and Industry in collaboration with the International Trade Centre (ITC)
Dr. Mathok accused some unnamed companies of bringing workers from outside the country and keeping their operational accounts in the neighboring countries which contributed to the downfall of South Sudan’s economy.
“We’ve realized that the huge companies operating in South Sudan including the oil sector, are not keeping their money in our country. You can get companies with 300-400 employees and once you analyze the bank statement you see only three thousand (3,000 USD) that for all year.
“Those companies are opening operational accounts in the neighboring countries, and they are getting money from South Sudan. We are going to stop these. It’s either you come fully to operate in South Sudan, or you leave. We analyze this and it’s shocking, this is also the reason the US dollar is rising,” he said.
Minister confessed that insecurity is affecting job creation in the states and local towns in the country.
He says this blocked the chances of young people accessing opportunities needed because several companies fear investing in a place that doesn’t guarantee the safety of their money.
Dr. Dhieu says the Unity government is working hard to ensure that the security threats affected by the job market will be handled.
“Juba is not South Sudan, if we talk of creating jobs let’s underline that South Sudan is not Juba. We need to take the job to young people who are in Eastern Equatoria, we need to take them to Jonglei.
“We need those companies to operate in such areas so that the employment opportunities are not risky only in Juba. The government of national Unity is working on this to stabilize the country.”
The Minister further expressed deep concern over the lack of access to finances among the local companies.
“There are issues with access to finance and this is one of the major issues. Many businesses are not getting money such that they can invest and create jobs for young people.”
“We have very poor financial institutions that we need to Develop such that our people with small business could access finances.”