Bright Prospects Despite Legacy of Problems [Archives:2001/03/Business & Economy]

Farouk Luqman
Journalist
As an observer of the Yemeni scene, being a long-time expatriate journalist, I have been following with special interest the rehabilitation of the economy after many years of frustrating impediments.
These are already well-known, starting with the almost woeful lack of infrastructure projects, from water supply to waste disposal, through the catastrophic civil war to the shortage of financial and specialist human resources.
Allied with other factors like bureaucratic red-tape they conspired to scare away not only foreign venture capital but also native and expat investments. Only a few brave Yemenis and the occasional expat company have been convinced of the long-term attraction of Yemen as a potentially promising investment haven, hopefully like what the East Asians states have become.
Much of what has been said here is now behind us. The disasters of the coalition government with a Marxist party in the southern region and the ruinous war that naturally flowed from it, are history. The internal security situation is a lot better. Oil flows smoothly, abductions and terrorist blasts have been curtailed. The state under President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and the government led by Dr. Abdul Karim Al Iriani, have stood the test of time. The civil service which had been the bane of Yemen is said to be slowly evolving as I learn from those who have had some experience in working with it. Corruption can not be wiped out but may be controlled. It is a worldwide phenomenon and nobody claims that it can ever be eliminated anywhere. At the same time, the restoration of Adens free port status and the construction of the container terminals, have reinstated Aden on the world free ports map.
It was first made a free port by the British colonial government in 1850 and soon became the busiest port in the empire easily beating British, European, African and Asian ports.
For some reason, not totally unexpected in Marxist ideology, the port status was terminated. It expired with immediate effect and the whole of South Yemen suffered immeasurably. But nobody at the top seemed to care until the secessionist war was ended and Marxism abandoned. President Saleh embarked on a massive, costly, heart breaking but determined rehabilitation program.
I first visited Aden after 25 years of absence shortly after the war in 1994. It was an unforgettable shock. The place was a ghost town like some of those shown on old western movies. Buildings were easily condemnable as unfit for human habitation. The people were extremely poor, mostly jobless and worst of all, almost despairing for a better life ahead, not only for them, but even for their children.
My second and third visits restored my confidence in Aden and glimpses of its past glory which I had had the good fortune of living from birth until the Marxist seizure of power.
I had regained, through purchase, the house that I had built and lived in and then seen confiscated during that sorry period of South Yemeni history. There was a marked revival of commercial activity through the influx of expat money and that of northern investments in small hotels, restaurants, shops, workshops and tourist-oriented projects specially in the Tawahi area and beyond. Confidence was returning to the previously malnourished contemporaries who had been my classmates. Their children were slightly better off and the modest construction activity was providing jobs to some of the previously unemployed. A few privately-owned hospitals and polyclinics gave me a moral boost that should I fall sick during my visit, I will be well looked after, God willing. Of course my old press and publishing house had long been seized and sold, of course, without any thought of compensation let alone even a token payment. Thousands like me suffered a similar fate whether they were factory, kiosk or taxi owners, farmers or fishermen.
The economic climate in Yemen, re-united, politically stable, at peace with its neighbors, and internally tranquil, can only get better in due course given some or all the following conditions:
(1) A civil service that is motivated to serve and facilitate native, expat and foreign investments, not to obstruct it to the extent of driving them away.
(2) Continued internal peace and security, essential for investment and tourism.
(3) Enhanced privatizations because only private enterprise can shoulder the awesome task of nation-building from the development of telecommunications to municipal and urban development, the tourist industry, education and health care.
(4) Yemen deserves credit for a relatively free press. This should be upheld and made a standing order and an integral part of public life. Only a free press will tell the leadership that something is wayward or wrong and that the civil service is not doing its job properly. This newspaper, Yemen Times, is a shining example of the role that an enlightened, responsible but fearless press can achieve in the service of the nation.
If Yemen may appear to be a poor country, take a look outside its borders to see the enormous financial resources available to its four million expats who own scores of billions of dollars in ready cash, waiting for the right opportunity to start pouring into erstwhile Arabia Felix.

——
[archive-e:03-v:2001-y:2001-d:2001-01-15-p:./2001/iss03/b&e.htm]