Al-Attar:”Yemen has a golden opportunity to attract investments” [Archives:2007/1063/Business & Economy]
Interviewed by: Raidan Al-Saqqaf
[email protected]
Mr. Salah Al-Attar, Director of the General Investment Authority, is one of the few young officials in Yemen who is spearheading one of the most critical government agencies in the country, with a huge relevance to the economy. Al-Attar has a decade of International experience in government and the privet sector, and has traveled extensively across Europe and North America.
YemenTimes had an in-depth interview with Mr. Al-Attar, and tackled a wide array of subjects relevant to the economy, among which the issue of investment promotion in Yemen.
Kindly brief us about yourself
I am a Yemeni citizen, from Hujarya, lived most of my life abroad, in Lebanon, The United States, France, Switzerland, and the UK, I majored in international relations and political science. I came back in Yemen after finishing my MBA, and worked here at the General Investment Authority as Undersecretary – head of investment promotion for about a year and a half, after which then I left the public sector and joined a prominent multinational corporation, and held several senior positions within that corporation. Earlier this year I was appointed as the Director of the General Investment Authority by a presidential decree. I'm married with a two year-old son, Ryan.
How do you describe the success of the recent investment conference in Yemen?
I strongly believe that the last investment conference in Yemen was a success, it is another milestone following the success of the donors conference last November. This conference was a huge success as evident from the level of participation and number of participants; we expected somewhat between 200-300 investors, however we were surprised to get over 650 participants attending the conference. The materials exchanged at the conference and the level of discourse we shared with participants along the sides of the conference indicated that many attending investors are very keen on discovering suitable investment opportunities in Yemen. In fact, many of them have come forward after the conference and we have licensed a number of projects by leading corporations, such as Qatar-based Al-Dyar constructions, two cement factories in Abyan, Al-Qudra Corporation has a project on the way, LULU hypermarket expanding in Sana'a, among others. We are currently negotiating with many parties who want to invest in Yemen; However, most potential investments are limited in two sectors; tourism and real estate. Also, a number of European companies were interested in the mining sector in Yemen.
Can you elaborate on the new competitiveness of Yemen in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI), in the light of the success of the investment conference.
Before answering your question, let me point out that it is still far too early to give quantifiable numbers on the increase of FDI into Yemen as a result of the conference, the conference was only two months ago and it is far too early to pass a judgment. Having said that, five projects out of 360 projects per year is a meaningless number, yet five projects is all what we have had so far, in terms of practical signatures, but negotiations are still on-going with a large number of potential investors, therefore it is still far too early to judge the success of the conference at this point of time.
However, we can say that, from an interest point of view, the interest of investors in Yemen has increased substantially, I assure you, as this is reflected in the number of visits, requests, phone calls and information requests that I am getting from potential investors. But I'd like to stress that Yemen is still far behind in attracting FDI, actually in 2005 Yemen has a negative number in terms of FDI flow, but I think that this trend has been reversed and I hope and feel confident that the future outlook is going to be far better, considering that Yemen has a historical opportunity knocking on its door.
This historical opportunity is in the increase in Oil prices has the subsequent inflow of money to the region, coupled with the political economy of international relations post the Septmber 11th attacks, the flow of FDI has seen a change as more FDI is flowing between developing countries as an example for South-South cooperation, not only from Gulf Cooperative Council members, but also from China and India.
With particular reference to GCC countries, they have become more reluctant in investing in the went and therefore the competitiveness of investment opportunities in Yemen are becoming more attractive to them, so I think Yemen has a tremendous opportunity to seize this occasion and try to attract investment, that's why the speed of reforms, not only macroeconomic reforms but also reforms within the legal system, the pace of these reforms should increase rapidly, time is a luxury we don't have, therefore we have to do whatever it takes to speed up reforms and attract investments.
In the past, maybe we haven't been aggressive enough in promoting for investment opportunities in Yemen, because it could've backfired on us hadn't we started to increase the pace of reforms, you need to ensure that whatever investment opportunities you are promoting, do not face impediments during the implementation phase, otherwise it will be counter productive,
Several Investors complained that Yemen has a 'false advertising' campaign when it comes to investment opportunities, harming the image of Yemen, how do you feel about this?
I certainly share with you the view that Yemen has a negative image outside, the attributes of this negative image are two fold, the first is party objective and substantiated, because we do face problems and issues here and have our own share of mishaps, and part of the success of any solution is to first accept and acknowledge the problems that we have, so that we would be able to design solutions to our problems to sort them out through appropriate remedies. The second is subjective, and it a failure of our part to be actively involved in image building, the only news that used to go out of Yemen are mostly negative news, we didn't even have sort of a crisis management office to try and dilute the negative issues we have, and because we also didn't start feeding the networks with positive news until late in 2006, we have, in our promotion strategy, a full fledged plan on how to improve the image of Yemen for the International Community, media has a key role to play in establishing the positive image of Yemen and we rely on the media to help us and help the country in that regards.
I urge the government to review the legislations and have a direct relationship with investments in order to ease issues with investors, secondly the issue of lands, we are working on a project to surrender all lands allocated for investments, to be submitted to the general investment authority to disperse off these lands to serious potential investors according to a pre-set and predefined mechanism.
How do other government agencies cooperate with the GIA in helping its mandate?
In fact, within the current government I personally witness a sound level of cooperation from other governmental agencies, there is a reason for that, there is a clear vision, and a clear directing coming from the top of the pyramid, and his Excellency the prime minister transforms this vision into decrees and orders within the cabinet, which, I have to admit, is enabling me to create the necessary environment in which GIA can operate, most of government agencies are cooperating, or at least the intention to cooperate is there. you find obstacles the lower you go in the administrative structure; it is a natural reaction for anyone to resist change, what is happening currently in the government is a change-management program, sometimes we have to use the stick and carrot approach with selected agencies, but overall I am satisfied with the current level of cooperation – for now.
Having said that, I understand that there are intrinsic problems that limit the cooperation of several government bodies with us, some organizations are created with an overlaps in the span of authority with other government organizations, one key example is investment promotion; GIA does some investment promotion, the tourism development board does some, the Islands development program does some, the local governor office does some, the Prime Minister's office does some, the Ministry of Industry and Trade does some, so you see there is an over lap, we are currently mapping out all organizations who are involved in investment promotion, for example who is involved in policy making, who is involved in advocacy, and who is involved in facilitations, and also image building, there are institutional and structural issues which we need to minimize, and reinforce the concept of the one-stop shop, because the message gets diluted along the way and you might end us with contradictory messages from different bodies, which will negatively impact investors, who should know who to believe and who to talk to.
Do you face any obstacles or interventions by influential persons as such?
There are such interferences here and there, like in most Least Developed Countries; I have thought that such interferences are more of an issue than they really are, I'm not denying that they exist, or the fact that they are counter productive, but I am positively surprised to find that the number of such interferences are decreasing, and I have seen that there are quick interventions to limit such interferences at the moment they arise, I am speaking from experiences, I did face some interferences over the last two months with specific projects, but we have been able to take serious action against such interferences because is a sincere will from President Saleh to ensure that Yemen becomes an investor-friendly environment. I have worked in the General Investment Authority nine years ago, and I have to say the difference between now and then is huge, and the improvement is very tangible, and I look forward to more improvements and prosperity in the future.
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