Doing business with the world's youngest country — Republic of South Sudan? Then, add this entry to your phone book. The International Telecom Union (ITU), which governs telecom related issues of the world, has allotted 211 as international dialling code for this African country.
It represents the year (211) in which South Sudan gained independence after a referendum on January 1, the ITU said in a statement.
On independence and recognition by the UN General Assembly, a country can apply to ITU for a country code. In this case, ITU officials had been in contact with South Sudanese officials since January 2011 to explain the procedures in the case of independence, which meant the country code could be pre-allocated and assigned as soon as the UN General Assembly gave South Sudan recognition.