Al-Burhan’s Initiative… and Sudan as a Gateway to the World!

Adel Al-Rifai Abu Al-Hassan
The initiative put forward by the Chairman of the Transitional Sovereignty Council, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, during the Russia–Africa Summit — expressing Sudan’s readiness to establish a major free trade zone on the Red Sea coast, which would allow Russia to set up strategic fuel and grain storage facilities to meet the needs of Sudan and West African countries — opens up an important opportunity to consider Sudan’s economic future and its role in regional and international trade.
However, this initiative’s significance extends beyond cooperation with Russia or the establishment of fuel and grain storage facilities. It offers an opportunity to advance a broader strategic vision that leverages Sudan’s geographical location, maritime potential, and African hinterland, with the aim of transforming the country into a regional hub for maritime services, logistics, and trade.
Sudan has a coastline on the Red Sea, one of the world’s most important maritime routes, and is connected to a vast African hinterland. It also borders four landlocked countries — Ethiopia, Chad, the Central African Republic and South Sudan — all of which need access to seaports, markets, transport services and trade facilities. Sudan also has several specialised ports, as well as agricultural, livestock and mineral-producing areas that could be connected to domestic and regional markets through roads and railways.
Sudan’s competitive advantage lies not simply in its geographical location, but in its ability to combine its Red Sea coastline, its extensive African hinterland and its proximity to the markets of landlocked countries. It can provide integrated routes and services linking maritime trade with production centres and markets. If developed effectively, these assets would give Sudan an opportunity to compete with established regional hubs — not merely by receiving ships or serving as a transit route for goods, but by providing services that meet the needs of African markets.
Ethiopia clearly illustrates this opportunity. According to African Development Bank data, more than 90 per cent of its imports and exports pass through Djibouti’s ports. United Nations data also indicate that logistics costs for imports in landlocked developing countries are 75 per cent higher than those incurred by developing countries that serve as transit countries. In comparison, export costs are 63 per cent higher. These figures show the economic opportunity offered by effective trade corridors, provided Sudan can offer competitive alternatives and connect them to the wider African continent.
The proposed free trade zone could serve as the nucleus of a much larger economic project, incorporating dry and refrigerated warehouses, storage and distribution centres, re-export facilities, and industrial and commercial zones that benefit from their proximity to ports and shipping routes. Sudan should not merely serve as a corridor for the transit of other countries’ trade. It should become an economic hub that adds value to trade through storage, manufacturing, maritime services and logistics, thereby generating investment and employment opportunities.
The opportunities also extend to services required by ships and international transport companies, such as refuelling, ship maintenance and repair, dry docks, maritime emergency services and cargo handling. Transshipment activities could also be developed, with large vessels receiving cargo and redistributing it to smaller ships bound for ports across the region. These activities could be integrated with logistics and industrial zones and an international airport to create a comprehensive system offering opportunities for investment, training, knowledge and technology transfer, while strengthening Sudan’s role in maritime security.
The success of these projects requires a comprehensive plan that links the free trade zone with ports, roads, railways, energy networks, telecommunications, and water infrastructure. It must also identify each project’s requirements and how it relates to the others to avoid conflicting routes, duplication, and wasted resources.
Integrated planning does not mean implementing all projects at once. Rather, it means defining the overall vision and priorities, then implementing in interconnected phases, beginning with projects that are most viable and capable of delivering direct economic impact. This should be guided by studies assessing demand, costs, returns and technical requirements. Operational planning must also account, from the outset, for the necessary technologies and equipment, types of vessels, communications and navigation systems, safety standards, and maintenance requirements. This would help prevent costly modifications after operations have begun.
This vision also requires national infrastructure capable of supporting economic activity and future expansion, particularly electricity and energy, roads and railways, telecommunications and water. Such infrastructure should serve the productive needs of the Sudanese economy, from agriculture and industry to livestock and mining. This would reduce production and transport costs, facilitate exports and open up new markets.
Here, an important principle comes into focus: when building the state and developing its economy, we must start with our national needs. But when designing services to offer to the world, we must understand the needs of global markets and the standards of international competition, and prepare Sudan to meet them.
This vision cannot be built on temporary decisions or projects tied to the tenure of a particular government or official. It requires a stable legal and institutional framework that protects investments, contracts, and commitments, and gives partners confidence in policy continuity.
It also requires institutions capable of planning, implementation and monitoring, as well as qualified personnel in maritime, logistics, engineering and management fields. Investment in training and specialised education is essential, along with international expertise, technology, and partnerships. These projects are connected to global markets, operational standards and supply chains that extend far beyond the domestic market.
This vision may appear ambitious given the circumstances and challenges facing Sudan. However, limited resources do not make it impossible to begin. Countries do not wait until every necessary condition is in place. They start with what they have, set priorities, attract expertise and partnerships, and then gradually build capabilities and expand projects. A country determined to achieve progress creates the capacity to do so; it does not wait until that capacity is fully developed before taking the first step.
Sudan is a country of strategic opportunities that have been deferred from one generation to the next. What it lacks is not geographical advantage or resources so much as the ability to turn these assets into practical projects under a clear national vision to which state institutions remain committed across successive governments.
Al-Burhan’s initiative could become more than a mere proposal for cooperation with Russia. It could provide the starting point for a vision that makes the Red Sea Sudan’s gateway to the world and transforms its geographical position into an economic asset that generates opportunities and builds shared interests and partnerships.
Sudan does not need merely to describe its potential; it needs to put that potential to work and turn it into projects and tangible achievements that accumulate over time, building a state capable of competing and shaping its future.
For nations advance not simply through the opportunities they possess, but through their ability to turn those opportunities into reality.

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