South Sudan’s First Vice-President Taban Deng Gai said the government is working on a master plan for the proposed new capital city of Ramciel that will cost the nation 10 billion US dollars.
Gai was speaking at the ongoing Oil and Power Conference in Juba on Tuesday.
He said the government has committed to using part of the oil revenue to the realization of the new city.
“To just have the master plan before building the city so that the land has value will cost South Sudan about 10 billion USD, this is according to South Korean and Morocco. Of course, somebody will tell South Sudanese that this is a wastage of money. But we must build Ramciel, it is an area that investors can come and invest in,” he asserted.
The first vice president further said a conference deliberating the construction of Ramciel city is underway in Morocco with the master plan expected to out in February 2020.
“Our experts from the ministry of housing are in Morocco in a workshop like this discussing Ramciel. This is the second to last workshop so that by February next year the master plan is finished. Then we will have a conference like this one to discuss the implementation of the master plan,” he added.
Gai said aside from the construction of Ramciel, the government intends to use the oil revenue on four major projects including the construction of roads, power generation, and transport.
“We want to do about 11,000km road to connect the whole of South Sudan with neighboring countries,” he said.
During his speech, the official called on investors exhibiting at the conference to consider investing in other sectors including the construction of the new city.
The 2-day Oil and Power conference in Juba brought together more than 600 public and private sector investors to exhibit investment opportunities in the country’s oil sector.
Morocco and South Sudan signed several agreements, including one on the construction of the new proposed capital, Ramciel.
In 2017, President Salva Kiir issued an executive order forming a high-level committee led by First Vice-President Taban Deng Gai to make the necessary preparations for the relocation of the nation's capital city from Juba to the newly proposed site in Ramciel.