Sudan's Minister of Finance and Economic Planning Ibrahim Al-Badawi uncovered on Monday plans to hold an international auction of properties confiscated from the regime of ousted President Omar al-Bashir.
Earlier, the Sudanese government announced a detailed program to be presented at an international conference planned for April 2020 to secure a broader range of assistance to support the transition.
During his speech at the press conference of the Sudan News Agency Monday, Badawi said that his ministry plans to establish a specialized committee with the mission of organizing an “international auction” of properties confiscated from officials loyal to the Bashir regime.
“Until now, those confiscated properties are worth 1 trillion Sudanese pounds,” the Minister said.
He added that the 2020 budget targets a minimum growth rate of 3% compared to 2% in the past two years.
Badawi revealed a significant increase in the development component in the current year’s budget amounting to 155 billion pounds.
He said the cabinet initially approved a budget that includes reforms and resource allocation and mobilization, expecting that an economic conference scheduled for next March would come up with a vision to boost the economy in the country.
Badawi said his ministry is keen to reform wages and salaries in the light of the continuous deterioration of the purchasing power of people with limited income, pointing out that task forces have been formed to review the job structure and address distortions in the civil service so that they achieve job satisfaction and justice.
The Minister disclosed an external financing for the 2020 budget through grants and loans provided by regional and international financing institutions.
He said 48% of the total grants and loans are from Arab institutions, 43% by international institutions, and 9% via bilateral cooperation.
Reviewing the sources of budget financing, Badawi said the current government started to pay arrears for the Arab Funds, that the previous regime failed to pay back.
“We are now ready to get advantage of the financing in the development projects,” he said, adding that loans and grants for 2020 include $160 million from the Kuwaiti Fund, $40 million from the African Development Bank and $17 million the World Bank 17 million dollars.
He also referred to the grants of IGAD countries in the framework of bilateral cooperation at $21 million, United Nations agencies at $462 million $ 107 million, in addition to China grants and loans, which amounted to $169 million.
