How economic superpowers rise [Archives:2005/834/Business & Economy]
A two-day roundtable conference on social growth and development organized last week by the ministry of planning and international cooperation and the World Bank, recommended the necessity of adopting a practical policy removing hindrances of investment in Yemen and drawing up a collection of measures in all fields.
All that in addition to the importance of activating partnership between the government and the private sector, development of the banking sector and enhancement of its role in financial mediation as well as the establishment of a stock exchange market as a mechanism for attracting savings.
Recommendations called for the building a thorough economic policy based on diversification of the base of economic resources and resources of national income through the exploitation of promising sectors such as fish, tourism and agriculture.
At the time the prime minister has, at the conclusion of the conference, stressed the importance of exploiting Yemen's strategic situation as a free area for attracting foreign investments directly, the increasing of trade activity, exportation and encouragement of women in the private sector through facilitating and simplifying the procedures of registering economic projects established by women, acquires great importance.
The recommendations also called for defining the public officialdom, adoption of the criterion of efficiency, raising the level of the public sector employee to curb corruption. Regarding the gender, the recommendations called for dependent systems of quota and the approach of gender in plans, programs and budgets, in addition to encouragement of investments in areas employing the woman labour, the development of women in agriculture and encountering their educational, health and technical needs.
Those recommendations demanded improvement and development of education programs to be in line with needs of labour market and requirements of the private sector. They called for paying attention to industries that attract labour particularly those which help create job opportunities, enhancing the role of the sector of small enterprises. They also called for building governmental institutional frame meant for encouraging small labour sectors, concentration on all rural development and encouragement of agricultural, fish and tourism sectors.
There should be an effort for caring for the change from traditional economic activities to modern ones which have added value. There must be an enhancement of women participation in drawing up general policies and translation of the strategy of the working women into programs and projects. As well as taking care of government employment offices and opening more of them especially in the facilitation of abroad labour transfer.
Dr Mutahar Abdulaziz al-Abassi, undersecretary of the ministry of planning and international cooperation had confirmed that the government would give articles of the recommendations great importance and attention, pointing out that holding that roundtable came as part of the third developmental plan 2006-2010, a matter which would render their articles enter in that plan and there would be executive procedures.
There would be a technical team that would undertake the follow-up results and the assistant World Bank team so that that program would have certain goals, time, policies and measures that must be taken as well as defining roles of relevant sides.
On his part, the World Bank senior economists at the sector of economic and social sector in the Middle East and North Africa reviewed the WB plan on how to revive the deteriorated growth in Yemen, stressing that there was hope in improvement in performance of the Yemeni economy through activation of promising sectors and not to depend on oil as a major resource.
He clarified that the cost of local investment in Yemen is still little and that helps engagement of the private sector in greater manner in the economic construction. He mentioned that Yemen was among the few countries that had great profits from trade and investment and there must be an activation of this characteristic in addition to activation of the role of judiciary and registration of land ownership as well as the spread of security stability.
The participants in the establishment of a ministry for woman development, to make her participant in the plans of economic development and mechanism of fighting corruption spread in some government institutions, as well as th formation of a committee to follow up implementation of the recommendations with the relevant sides.
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