Sudan has one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa, but economic growth appears to be concentrated in Khartoum.  The professedly Islamist government has embraced economic liberalisation; that, combined with oil industry growth, has driven GDP growth of 8% in 2005 and a projected 13% this year.  Foreign investment from China and the Gulf oil states has burgeoned following last year’s signing of a peace treaty with rebels in southern Sudan.

Sudan's ruling National Congress Party is toning down its hitherto robust Islamist language; the new emphasis is on economic development.

Alsunut, KhartoumHowever, it is almost exclusively the Arab heart of the country that is benefiting from the boom. Nearly $3 billion of foreign direct investment has come to Sudan, but well over half of it has gone to the capital and its hinterland. In the past year hotels, telecoms companies, light industries and even a Thai massage parlour have opened in a city that is still nominally ruled by sharia law.

The development that most epitomises Khartoum's new dynamism is Alsunut. Meaning “point of meeting” in Arabic, this behemoth of a residential and office project is now under construction on 65 hectares (160 acres) of land where the Blue and White Niles converge. The $4 billion project, the result of a public-private partnership between the government and DAL Group, Sudan's leading company, will transform the city by adding 63 towers varying between 15 and 35 floors in height. Over half the office space has already been sold to local and foreign companies.

Evidence of economic prosperity is hard to find outside the capital, however.  War has driven two million people of Darfur into refugee camps.  The south, despite the peace treaty, remains one of the poorest areas on the continent.  If Khartoum would share the wealth with the rest of the country, Sudan could reap long-term benefits from greater stability.

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