Senegalese President calls on ministers to attract more Gulf investment

Bloomberg | Dec 10, 2010

By Drew Hinshaw

Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade told ministers yesterday to create an Agency for Afro-Arab Affairs to attract more Arab investment into the country’s agrarian economy.

Wade made the request after returning from a conference in Saudi Arabia, according to the minutes of Cabinet meeting published on the government’s website. The president also asked the Foreign Ministry to look into new visa rules to make it easier to travel to and from the Gulf region.

The West African nation, which is overwhelmingly Muslim, maintains close ties with Iran, whose president is scheduled to visit this month, Senegalese presidential spokesman Pape Diagne said in a Nov. 19 interview. It has also improved links with Saudi Arabia, whose BinLaden Group has a controlling stake in the country’s only oil refinery, Societe Africaine de Raffinage.

The Saudi Arabian investment fund, Foras International, is looking to lease a “large” amount of agricultural land in Senegal to produce rice, spokesman Momar Gueye said on Dec. 7.