03 March 2006 (Nairobi) – Preparations are underway for a second southern Sudan International Investment and Development Conference due to be held in Nairobi, Kenya later this month.

The organisers of the conference—Bread of Life Africa, other NGO’s, and Kenyan businessmen—yesterday briefed the press on the up coming conference. Speaking during the press conference in a Nairobi hotel, Bread of Life Africa Program Director Mr. Malei Nthiwa said that the conference is being held in light of recent positive changes in southern Sudan.

[Malei Nthiwa]: “This conference is organised in the backdrop of several major events which have happened in southern Sudan. First of all we have the CPA and with the peace agreement; new and positive developments have also come up. We have now the formation of the Government of Southern Sudan with the accompanying institutions and infrastructures. There are also other developments in terms of formation of Government of National Unity in Khartoum and also the formation of the United Nations mission in Sudan.”

Nthiwa added that the conference is important because Sudan will now enter a phase of rapid development. He welcomed the participation of the private and public sectors and the civil society.