By Mohammed Amin
KHARTOUM
Turkey has signed 20 economic cooperation agreements with Sudan, a Sudanese official told the Anadolu Agency on Monday.
Speaking after the visit of the deputy undersecretary of the Turkish ministry of foreign affairs Ali Kemal Aydin to Sudan, the director of the European Department at the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Youssef Alkordofani told Anadolu Agency that the agreements covered the various fields of security, agriculture, infrastructure, telecommunication, transportation, education, health, cultural exchange, electricity and humanitarian support.
He pointed out that the agreements on security and agriculture have been ratified by the parliaments of the two countries, and that the remaining agreements are expected to receive approval in the near future.
‘’Turkey has already agreed to sell Sudan planes and ships to rehabilitate the transportation sector which has been damaged due to American sanctions,’’ Alkordofani said.
‘’Turkey has also started to build a big Turkish university in Khartoum, and it is granting more than 100 scholarships for the Sudanese students’’ he added.
Measures will be taken to boost trade volume between the two countries, Aydin said.
‘’We are launching a wide call among Turkish businessmen to invest in various sectors in Sudan,’’ he added.
The ministries of foreign affairs in the two countries have on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding regarding the technical support to be offered by the Turkish ministry to its Sudanese counterpart.
The Turkish official said that the first phase of technical support will cost around $1 million and the second phase will cost $2 million.
He said that they also agreed to push forward the implementation of the agreements between the two countries on security assistance Turkey has agreed to provide to Sudan.
An economic conference will be held in Khartoum in November to discuss investment opportunities for the Turkish private sector in Sudan, according to the director of bilateral relations at the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Daffaa Alah Alhaj.
The Sudanese diplomat said that Sudan will offer preferential advantages for the Turkish investment.
