From the ground up

The new nation's in-tray is full. Theirs is a case of building a country from scratch: There are no roads; the people are returning from refugee camps in neighboring Kenya and Uganda; there's still no infrastructure, like sufficient water and electricity; and there are millions of mouths to feed.

Before July 9, there's the border dispute over the oil-rich Abyei region between the north and the south of Sudan. That has to be negotiated, because the separate referendum in the area to determine whether it should lie in the North or the South failed to take place.

How the oil revenues will be shared, how the pipeline will be utilized and how the national debt has been accumulated when South Sudan was in the larger Sudan are some of the key issues that have to be negotiated and settled before the declaration of independence.

Which currency to be used in the newly independent state, the Sudanese Pound or the Dinar, is also a matter that the new government will have to determine. With the secession, the question of citizenship also arises.

There have been proposals for a "soft border" rather than splitting the country, owing to the obvious underdevelopment of the south.

Though the vote for secession was overwhelming, the reality of the split shows some reluctance, by both the North and South to let go of each other.

There are those who expect that goods will flow freely or at extremely reduced taxes across the border. However, others say, the socio-economic stability will depend on the goodwill and the economic benefits that each of the two countries expects from each other.

For example, the two countries will have a joint say in the oil revenues from the South. The South currently gets half the revenues. But from July 9, South Sudan will get all the revenues less the rental of refinery and pipeline services from the North.

The South wants to leverage on the developed infrastructure in the North to boost trade and investment.