Three ministers appeared on Tuesday before Parliament after being summoned to respond to questions by the lawmakers on Investment Act 2009.
Minister of Trade and Industry Koul Athian, Minister of Investment Dhieu Mathok, and Minister Petroleum Pout Kang Chol were summoned to answer questions about what the lawmakers view as foreign nationals’ domination of small-scale businesses, rendering South Sudanese citizens jobless.
According to the lawmakers, Schedule 3 of the Investment Promotion Act 2009 gives priority businesses such as micro-enterprises, postal services, car hire and taxi operations, public relations businesses, security services and cooperatives to South Sudanese nationals.
The MPs, however, said most of the retail businesses in the country had been taken over by foreign nationals and questioned the three ministers on what their ministries have been doing to address the issue.
In his response to the question, Minister of Trade and Industry Koul Athian said his ministry is facing some challenges to control the issue, as there are three levels of government.
“We have three levels of government in South Sudan, the national government, the state and county government. Once an investor comes to South Sudan, he must first go to the Ministry of Investment, whereby we shall approve it and send it to the Ministry of Justice,” Athian said.
“Then the ministry of justice will register the company, after which it is sent to the state government for operations licenses, mostly by the county authorities or institutions such as city council for operations licenses and location of the business,” he added.
According to Athian, the Ministry of Trade and Industry is only responsible for approving investors and issuing what he calls import and export licenses, and not operations licenses.
Meanwhile, Investment Minister Dhieu Mathok said his ministry had developed a policy framework to establish the ministry, saying the policy was successfully implemented except for the construction of the investment tower.
“This means that one of the reasons we don’t have units and mechanisms which were imposing the implementation of Schedule 3, and now we have done it, and we’re ready for the task,” Mathok said.
According to Dhieu, the investment ministry is also embarking on amendments to the Investment Promotion Act 2009.
“The amendment Bill has been with the National Constitutional Amendment Committee since December last year as required by the constitution. This is also another mechanism because we have seen some of the loopholes regarding the microfinance business, and we are trying to adjust it by implementing the act,” he explained.
Finally, when asked to explain why there is unequal employment at oil companies, Petroleum Minister Pout Kang said employment is based on the companies’ needs.
“We inherited the petroleum sector from Sudan. So all these companies, namely GPOC, DPOC and SPOC, are all registered in the Republic of South Sudan upon attainment of our independence from Sudan,” he said.
According to the minister, since then the oil companies continued to employ workers based on their needs. He revealed that the recruitment process in oil companies often does not comply with the laws of South Sudan.
The constitution and the 2018 peace agreement give the legislative assembly powers to exercise legislative functions, oversee the executive, and authorize the allocation of resources and revenue.
South Sudan is governed by a transitional government formed under the 2018 peace agreement. The unity government comprises different parties.