In a memo sent to President Ali Abdullah Saleh:40 companies oppose monopoly of Yemen’s IT sector [Archives:2003/671/Front Page]

Sana'a, September 22 – In a letter sent to the President of the Republic of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, forty major Information Technology (IT) and computer companies operating in Yemen have expressed their total opposition to the monopoly of the IT sector in Yemen at any cost. The letter came as a result of an offer to the Yemeni government by a company called 'Al-Basair' to monopolize all IT-related services, machinery, and training for 25 years.
The 40 companies said, “In the Al-Basair Company offer, the company wishes to totally monopolize the country's IT sector and its infrastructure. This contradicts all Yemeni regulations encouraging investment and regulating the state's projects. The company's offer terminates all large, medium, and small-scale IT businesses and disagrees with the theme of allowing various companies and sources to provide their services to the Yemeni government based on international trade agreements.”
All 40 companies representatives have stressed that they are confident that the President will reject the offer in order to “establish a just competition atmosphere while enforcing the law.”
The letter also included the final conclusion of a committee set by the Ministry of Communications to study the offer. “We agree with the opinion of the experts who carried out the study in that it will be against Yemen's interests to accept the offer.” the companies' representatives said.
It is worth noting that the Dubai-based Al-Basair company proposed to exclusively take over all investment, development, design, construction, management, and maintenance of all equipment and software needed to save, document, operate, protect, coordinate, exchange, and transfer electronic information in its various forms for commercial investments. The offer includes the condition of exclusivity for 25 years, during which the government would guarantee that the project will be safe and all facilities will be provided to have it implemented. Another condition was to prevent any governmental or non-governmental entity to interfere in the administration of the project.
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