Juba: South Sudanese leaders said on Sunday they were considering building a new capital after their expected independence as the current hub Juba lacked infrastructure and space for new business.
"A committee has been formed to look into a more suitable place for a capital ... There are so many things that Juba doesn't have now in terms of services," said Anne Itto, a senior member of the south's ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM).
Itto added the committee would also consider expanding Juba.
South Sudan is expected to declare independence from the north on July 09 after its voters overwhelmingly chose to secede in a referendum in January.
Juba, which sits on the banks of the White Nile in the south's Central Equatoria state, has seen a dramatic but chaotic expansion since a 2005 peace deal ended decades of north/south civil war.
After the accord -- which promised the referendum -- Juba became the seat of the south's semi-autonomous government, the headquarters of a mushrooming United Nations presence and built on its status as the territory's commercial hub.
Bureau Report
First Published: Sunday, February 06, 2011, 15:35