Khartoum, the backbone of money and economy By: Professor Hassan Bashir M. Nour

06:12 PM June, 05 2023

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حسن بشير محمد نور-Sudan
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Khartoum, the backbone of money and economy
By: Professor Hassan Bashir M. Nour
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Sudan has a large concentration of basic infrastructure in Khartoum, that drives the economic, financial and business machinery in Sudan. The infrastructure of the communication network and electronic clearing, networks and banks of information and knowledge are located in Khartoum. In addition to that infrastructure, there are health institutions, including centers for chronic and incurable diseases, blood banks, medical and pharmaceutical supplies, and educational institutions, including the largest public and private universities and research centers.
In addition to the weight of the workforce, skills, training centers and basic capacity building, as well as the presidencies of taxes, customs, police and legal services with their basic databases. The presidency of the Central Bank of Sudan and the presidency of commercial and specialized banks and insurance companies, and thus the financial and technical reserves and databases are stationed in Khartoum. In addition to all this, Khartoum Airport, which controls the main air traffic, the Sudanese Company for Currency Presses, the Jeilly Refinery, power stations and water networks that feed the industrial zones, which represent the greatest weight of industrial production in Sudan, in addition to the most important companies, businesses and services that generate the greatest tax proceeds for the public treasury all located in Khartoum.
The most important public and private urbanization, housing architecture, and the architecture of economic and commercial activity are concentrated in Khartoum, as well as the most important commercial markets, workshops, factories, and networks of transporting goods and supplies. Khartoum, with its three cities (Khartoum, Omderman, Khartoum Babrey), is incomparable in terms of population density, as its population is estimated at between eight to ten million people. Most of them get up in the morning every day and return in the evening. With this movement, it pumps the largest amount of added values into the Sudanese economy. Khartoum represents a social haven in work, health, education and culture, as the majority of its population are poor and displaced from areas of conflict and crisis and fleeing the scourge of wars at home and abroad.
A cultural, knowledge and artistic heritage is concentrated in Khartoum with a cumulative or continuous historical gift, as there are a number of cultural centers, museums, printing presses, libraries, television and radio broadcasting channels, and the most important publications of various newspapers and magazines. All those material, knowledge and human resources concentrated in Khartoum - which are considered modest by international standards for the capitals of countries in the twenty-first century - are of great significance and have absolute advantages, not only for the Sudanese economy, but for Sudan as a viable country, because Sudan has suffered from a long history of bad Resource management, poor development, and the repercussions of wars and conflicts, therefore, what the current war brought about is considered a catastrophe of great tragic proportions.
If we deduct all the capabilities that are concentrated in Khartoum with its three cities from the total values available to Sudan, and if we add to it the direct and indirect costs of the war raging since April 15, 2023, we will find that the losses are huge and estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars per day. These costs are represented in the destruction, damage, and spending on the war. However, the cost of halting business related to production, business sectors, trade, finance, public revenues, and the exit of a lot of foreign exchange with those who left the country is considered an exorbitant cost by all economic measures. If we add to this the costs of stopping or almost completely breakdown of the banking system, and stopping the movement of bank transfers, financing, air and sea transport, and cross-border trade, we will realize the enormity of the cost of the war. As for the cost of gold exploration and export, which was a major source of national income, it needs a careful study to find out the losses in this vital sector of the Sudanese economy.
There is another devastating aspect of the war, which is the expulsion of foreign investors, no matter how few they are, from the country, and many of them will never return. Also, building an attractive environment for foreign investment in post-war Sudan will require a lot of money, effort and time.
Finally, it must be realized that the most serious costs of the war are is the social costs represented in the loss of lives, injuries, disabilities, diseases, miscarriage and death of fetuses, psychological impairments, the costs of losing general and higher education, homelessness, displacement and emigration without regional or international sponsorship, in addition to the risk of famine that threatens more than half of the population of Sudan.
In general, Sudan is living in a terrible ordeal that did not find the necessary attention from the popular and civil entities that should give it its true size. As for the regional and international response to the tragedy, it can be described as shameful, with the exception of some efforts made by some neighboring countries to open the borders to the flows of the Sudanese and provide the minimum level of basic needs, it is sufficient in this context to refer to the statement of the Director of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UHHCR),Who indicated during his visit to Cairo that the level of response to meet the needs of Sudanese refugees has reached 10%. Nevertheless, it must be noted the importance of what the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States of America are doing in efforts to extinguish the fire of war raging in Sudan, which tells the Sudanese that there are those who care about this matter. What most of the neighboring countries have done in terms of receiving and sheltering the refugees has greatly mitigated the effects of the disaster, especially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Chad, and to some extent Eritrea.
It is important to point out the weakness of the Sudanese communities among the immigrants and the weakness of the level of solidarity among the Sudanese themselves in the crises. It is noticeable that there are no organized communities in the neighboring countries of Sudan that can organize and receive support for the refugees to cover up the weakness of the international response to the Sudanese crisis. Not only that, but some Sudanese have invested in The scourge of war and the suffering of the Sudanese citizen by raising the rents and prices of deportation, goods and services, and the activity of brokerage and sub-leasing trade, whether at home or in some neighboring countries, This, of course, does not call for ignoring the magnanimity of many Sudanese who opened their homes and spent the precious in the relief of the displaced from the scourge of war inside Sudan. As for the campaigns of looting, robbery, destruction and burning property organized and criminal, which were carried out by deviant groups of Sudanese, this requires a special pause in research and review of the social and moral values that poets and artist have been writing and singing about throughout Sudanese history.