From sudaneseonline.com
South Sudan Prints New Currency Ahead of Independence
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Mar 31, 2011 - 7:16:45 AM
dan Prints New Currency Ahead of Independence
Printing company in Europe has begun printing South Sudan Pound, to be released on Independence Day July 9th.
Charlton Doki | Juba, South Sudan March 31, 2011
South Sudan Finance and Economic Minister David Deng Athorbei
The
government of South Sudan is already printing a new currency ahead of
the region�s official declaration of independence in July.
South
Sudan�s finance and economic planning minister, David Deng Athorbei told
reporters in Juba that the new currency is being printed in Europe, by a
company he wouldn�t name, and will be held by the printer until July
9th, the day the south�s independence is expected to be declared.
�We
are printing a new currency but we are still maintaining some secrecy
because we are not yet an independent state,� Athorbei said during the
government�s weekly press briefing on Tuesday.
During
post-referendum talks in Addis Ababa early this month, delegates from
the north�s ruling party, the NCP and the south�s ruling party, the
SPLM, agreed that South Sudan will have a its own new currency after
independence.
Athorbei said his ministry had signed a contract
with a European company that will print the currency adding, �They will
release the currency to us on one condition that by the time we are
recognized as an independent state by either the United States or Great
Britain, then they will release the currency.�
He said the
government of South Sudan wanted to have the new currency ready for
circulation, just in case the government in the north decides to issue a
new currency for the north on the day the south officially secedes.
�We
could have waited until our independence and come out openly but that
will delay our currency because we do not know, maybe on the 9th the
north may issue a new currency,� Athorbei explained.
The issuance
of a new currency by the north would tremendously disrupt the south�s
economy, which is intertwined with that of the north.
The finance
minister described the features of the currency being printed, which he
said will be called the South Sudanese pound.
�The design of the
currency is this way; on one face is the face of Dr. John [Garang]. On
the other face on many different denominations, is the face of various
issues covering our culture, mainly our heritage, our wealth, oil
wealth, the Nile, our rapids like the Fulla Rapids, and animals and so
on and so forth,� he described.
Finance officials in north Sudan
had earlier hinted they would discontinue the use of the Sudanese Pound
after the south officially becomes independent and reintroduce the old
currency, the Sudanese Dinar.
Analysts estimate the reintroduction
of the Pound in 2007 cost Sudan around a 150 million US Dollars, an
expense they say the north may not be able to afford given its current
economic crisis.
The former governor of Sudan�s Central Bank,
Sabir Mohamed al-Aassan, said before leaving office that South Sudan had
refused to heed to advice by experts to form a monetary union with the
north.
North Sudan has agreed to retrieve any quantity of Sudanese
pounds circulating in the south once the latter introduces its own
currency.
Financial experts estimate that only 10 percent of Sudan�s money currently circulates in the south.
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