South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit today launched the renewal of construction of the new Juba International Airport terminal, to be completed by the Chinese Harbour Engineering Company.
The long-delayed building was meant to be completed before independence day in 2011, but construction was halted for undisclosed reasons. In remarks today, Kiir accused his former cabinet ministers of eating the money for the airport project.
At a ceremony on Monday, Kiir launched a project to restart construction together with the Chinese ambassador, cabinet members and other officials.
“This Juba airport has really taken our money since 2005 and the people who did that are the ones now shouting outside after having escorted all this money into their pockets – they are the ones now accusing the government of corruption,” Kiir said, referring to the opposition SPLM Leaders faction, which is comprised largely of former ministers.
The construction project is expected to take 30 months. The main scope of the work is to rehabilitate the existing runway and also to extend the runway, and rehabilitate an existing parallel taxiway, capable of accommodating large-sized aircraft.
Overall the purpose is to increase the efficiency and lift the standard of the airport.
Kiir stated that any independent country like South Sudan is expected to have better facilities of an international standard, especially at the airport.
“When we said Juba International Airport some people might have been laughing at us. I think this is not our mistake, we were left behind by those who were ruling us,” Kiir said.
Kiir also directed the Juba City Council and the commission of Juba County and communities of Juba who are involved to cooperate with the construction company such that the work is finished on time. The president said without cooperation there would not be meaningful work done.
For his part, Li Yi, Vice President of China Harbour Company, promised that the company will try its best to allocate all the resources needed to make sure that the project will be done with perfect quality and high efficiency.
“We would like to reassure the government of the Republic of South Sudan and its people of great satisfaction with first class technique, first class quality and first class credit, making our own contribution to further the bilateral cooperation between our two countries,” Yi said.
Photo: Li Yi, Vice President of China Harbour Company