In brief [Archives:2006/923/Business & Economy]
– The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor this year has allotted more than YR 224 million to support 363 civil society organizations and institutions throughout Yemen.
Ministry sources clarified that the support comes as part of government efforts to assist Yemeni NGOs, as well as offer technical training and lending to them and expand and help such organizations' partnership and other programs.
Ali Saleh Abdullah, Social Affairs and Labor Undersecretary for the social development sector, said the law of private societies and institutions has set three conditions for such societies to receive support. The society should have established and begun its work a year before applying for support, its activities should benefit the public and it should present a copy of its final accounting, approved by the General Assembly, to the ministry or its governorate offices.
– Weaving and textile factory workers demonstrated Wednesday, Feb. 15 in front of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, protesting the delay in paying their January salaries and not implementing the wage increment pursuant to the government's July 2005 wage strategy.
Nabil Al-Salami, the factory's trade union chairman, told reporters, “There is a Ministry of Industry and Trade delay in paying our salaries.” He affirmed that the Ministry of Finance agreed to pay salaries from the first months of this year, but the ministry did not do it.
An official committee was set up last December to pay weaving and textile workers' wages for October, November, and December 2005 after Parliament intervened following protests by factory workers inside the factory and in front of Parliament.
– The Aden Free Zone administration has granted a license to an investor to establish a bronze industry firm. According to the recently issued license, the Bronze for Various Industries Company Ltd., owned by investor Adel Jawas, will begin work in the industrial zone with $300,000 in capital. The firm will produce, manage and market bronze products. The license also grants the company the right to import and export, as well as possess and build bronze investment and industrial projects.
– A delegation representing the General Federation of Yemeni Women participated in preparatory committee meetings of the Arab Social Forum at the General Secretariat of Arab International Federation of Trade Unions held at the Workers Studies Institute in Damascus last Wednesday.
– A delegation from Japan's Foreign Ministry and the Japanese International Cooperation Fund will arrive in Sana'a later this month. The delegation will discuss forming a Yemeni-Japanese technical committee to coordinate Japanese assistance to Yemen.
Omar Abdulaziz, Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation's East Asia director, mentioned that the committee aims to manage and coordinate Japanese assistance and loans during the next five years and activate cooperation agreements signed by the two countries.
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