IFC to finance a new Cement plant [Archives:2007/1064/Local News]
Essam Addu'ais
SANA'A, June,30 ) The Arabian Yemen Cement Company Ltd(AYCC) has signed an agreement with the IFC, the International Finance Corporation, that will help generate employment in one of the Republic of Yemen's least developed regions. The activity was held in the Sana'a -based Movinpick Hotel and attended by a number of Yemeni ministers, on Saturday June 30th.
The financing contract was signed by the representative of the IFC, Michael Essex, Director for the Middle East and North Africa and Zamil Abdulrahman Al-Mugren, the Director of the Arabian Yemen Cement Company which is mostly owned by prominent Saudi sponsors and well-known Saudi business executives, Engineer Abdullah Ahmed Bugshan and Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Al-Amoudi.
At the commencement of the ceremony, Zamil Abdulrahman Al-Mugren delivered a speech in which he said that the IFC will provide a $ 70 million loan for its own account and will mobilize an additional $ 55 million from the participating banks to build the first cement plant in eastern Yemen.
Zamil went on to say that the cement plant will be located in Al-Eion area near Mukalla, the capital city of Hadramout governorate. This area could meet the technical and environmental conditions. The plant will have a capacity of 1.54 million tons per year. It is expected that the project will substitute for imports through out producing comparable cement locally.
It will also have significant environmental return to the area by delivering job opportunities and good infrastructure services such electricity, drinking water, and road projects to the citizens of the area, he further elaborated.
In his turn, Abdulkareem Al-Arhabi, the Minister of Planning and International Corporation delivered a speech in which he said, “This initiative will create investment opportunities as well as direct and indirect job opportunities.”” The Saudi Arabia investment in Yemen reflects the intimate bilateral ties between Yemen and Saudi Arabia Kingdom
