At the opening Wednesday of a two-day investment conference, Khartoum Governor Haleem Al Mutaafi, with the Emirates junior finance minister at his side, said the Gulf country was funding the construction of 40 presidential villas along the Nile at a cost of $35 million. Initially, the villas will be occupied in January by heads of state at an African summit, the first to be held in Khartoum since 1987.

Mutaafi said five new hotels also were being built, and that he expected the new accommodation to be filled with foreign entrepreneurs. He said a peace deal this January that ended decades of civil war in the south has opened opportunities for investment.Other UAE projects announced on Wednesday included a dam in northern Sudan to produce 1,250 megawatts of electricity. The Emirates Minister of State for Financial  and Industrial Affairs, Dr Mohamed bin Kharbash, said his country wanted to invest in the areas that will have positive effects on human development in Sudan.