Abdel Rahim Hamdi
Abdel Rahim Hamdi, who had served as Sudan's Finance Minister in the 1990s, was appointed February 26, 2001, by President Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan al-Bashir (Omer Bashir) as Minister of Finance in the Sudan government. Hamdi resigned on June 15, 2002, for "health reasons". [1]
Profiles
A "member of the Muslim Brothers / National Islamic Front since his student days, Hamdi has nonetheless been accused in an NIF newspaper of insufficient commitment to the party's interests above his own. His high-flying career with al-Baraka Bank took him to live in London. When the Bashir regime made him Minister of Finance after its 1989 coup, he insisted on holding on to his old post as an al-Baraka representative, and commuted between London and the Khartoum Hilton." [2]
In 1993, after Arakis Energy Corporation "secured the contracts for its work in Sudan, it was reported that Hamdi's daughter had married the son of Lutfur Rahman Khan, Arakis' CEO, but Hamdi refuse[d] to discuss the matter." [3]
"Responsible for shaping the government's privatisation and structural adjustment program and fending off the threat of suspension by the World Bank / IMF, Hamdi continues to play a key economic advisory role despite leaving the post of finance minister." [4]
"Hamdi's attempt to introduce policies which were at the same time 'Islamist' and friendly to the IMF was supported by the NIF, but he eventually became the focus of blame for the failure of the economy and opted for a less public profile. He became the chair of the Sudanese Stock Exchange and is still influential in politics." [5]
Affiliations
In April 1997, Abdel Rahim Hamdi was appointed to the Board of Directors of Arakis Energy Corporation:
- "Mr. Hamdi is the former Finance Minister of the Republic of Sudan, a former international banker and is currently a director of Faisal Islamic Bank of Saudi Arabia."
External links
- "IMF Suspends Sudan" and "Sudan: Have the Generals Really Gone to Barracks?" Sudan Newsletter, Winter 1993/1994: "Last year (1992), the Sudanese Minister of Finance, Abdel Rahim Hamdi, spent part of the summer in Washington wooing the Fund to reconsider some modalities which would make it easier for Sudan to start servicing its debts. Hamdi was optimistic that the IMF would remove the Sudan's 'non-cooperative' status."
- "SUDAN: New cabinet list," ReliefWeb, February 26, 2001: "Abdel Rahim Hamdi: minister of finance and national economy."
- News Release: "Sudan's Finance Minister Welcomes Canadian Investment," Sudan Embassy, Canada, June 27, 2001.
- "Future of Foreign Investment in Sudan," A Working Paper Delivered by Abdel Rahim Hamdi, a Member of the National Congress Party (NCP) and an ex-Minister for Economy and Finance, Khartoum, September 11-12, 2005. Translated by Abdullahi El-Tom. Office of Strategic Planning and Training, JEM Abuja, 10/10/2005.
