Russian companies are interested in building ports in Sudan and have also submitted proposals to the Senegalese authorities, Russia's Ambassador to Senegal Dmitry Kurakov told Sputnik.

However, the firms haven't landed "any concrete projects there yet," the diplomat continued, adding that no contract was signed so far.

"Perhaps when the mining of some minerals starts, such an opportunity will be in demand," Kurakov said.

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With an investment of over $1 billion - the largest port investment in Africa - the UAE is currently building a deepwater port at Ndayane in Senegal, he pointed out.
  
"It is important to the Senegalese that investors come with their own financing. Nowadays, most large investment and infrastructure projects operate on the principle of public-private partnership. That is, the company comes with its own financing, implements the project, receives revenues from this project, which compensates its expenses," Kurakov said.

He highlighted that this is the type of investment the West African country is seeking at the moment.

Trade entry point

Talking to TASS last month, the department director of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade, Roman Chekushov, said that Russia is considering establishing ports to "organize the cargo flow" of locally-produced goods to African nations.

"There are several projects for Africa that should be implemented in the near time. One of them is to create a port in an African nation for the entry of Russian products, for cargo flow organization," he said at the time.

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"The entry from the western side is interesting for us - we are working with Senegal in the first instance in the west, the largest cargo traffic from the Russian Federation is there and they know Russian products, so this is fairly logical," Chekushov said.

"Several countries are viewed now to create such ports. This is because we are interested in entering from the eastern side - such countries as Tanzania, for example."

Algeria and Egypt are also being considered to be the main points in the north, he added.