- May 23, 2024
- Posted by: Tekajwok Ogut
- Category: News
Thursday, May 23, 2024- Juba
Department of Communication and Media-MoFP
The Minister of Finance and Planning, Hon. Eng. Awow Daniel Chuang and his colleague from Trade and Industry, Hon. William Anyuon and the Governor of Bank of South Sudan, Hon. Dr. James Alic Garang convened a joint meeting with representatives of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture as well as members of the Business Community and discussed exchange rate stabilization and regulation of commodity prices in the market.
The meeting focused on means of supplying the market with basic commodities such as food items, fuel, medicine and construction material for a period of three months as a short-term strategy to stabilize the market and control commodity prices.
Minister Awow told the business community that government’s medium and long-term plans are geared at establish a mechanized agriculture and construction of a viable refinery to supply the local and regional market with sufficient and affordable food and fuel to reduce the demand for hard currency hence strengthen the local currency.
The chairperson of chamber of commerce, Ladu Lokak commended the government for recognizing their role in stabilizing the market and assured their cooperation with the public sector to device mechanisms to restrain the inflation rate and flood the market basic commodities at affordable rates. He added that the private sector resolved to form a committee to work closely with the government to identify areas of cooperation and suggest qualified and competent companies that would supply the market with basic commodities.
The meeting addressed the need to diversify the economy and implement the President’s directives to boost the agriculture sector by making use of the current rain season to guarantee a plentiful harvest this year. The government pledged to channel funding to farmers through cooperatives to finance and support this medium-term strategy and encourage local food production for domestic consumption and export of local produce to the region and international market.
