Interview with Ahmed Thabet, GM of the International Bank of YemenBanking on a future with stable money in Yemen [Archives:2004/712/Business & Economy]
Q. How do you evaluate the international Bank of Yemen's experience in the last duration? And can you tell us about the new services provided by the bank and its future in the country?
A. We have been doing quite well in the last decade. The International Bank of Yemen has recently implemented the Phone Banking, Automated Teller Machine services and we are going to provide systems for SMS services soon.
In February, we will launch the selling points system and in March we will start applying the internet banking system. These are services that the bank has implemented in order to be in line with the latest of the monetary markets.
All these services are created by the bank in order to make the electronic payments system and monetary operations a reality in this country, which in turn a fulfillment of the project initiated by Central Bank and being under study currently.
Q. How so you evaluate the Yemeni employee's performance and what are the most important training programs provided by your institution in order to enhance your employee's capacities?
A. We are proud to say that the management of the IBY is 100% local cadre and that 99.9% of the employees are Yemeni nationals also. We do care and take interest in creating good knowledgeable Yemeni cadres which are effective and productive, and for doing so we invested good capital through training and qualifying programs internally and externally through training courses abroad in the Arab, European and American institutions as well.
The Yemeni employee has proven his / her worth and excellence abilities in the training on all the modern electronic products and his / her capabilities and skills are clear and appreciated by us.
Q. Do you have any collateral for bad loans in the credit policies that you follow in the bank?
A. There are risks in every market and the credit policies in Yemen carry their own risks like any other monetary market. But there are promising legal actions and good stability which would relatively facilitate the lending process in banks, and today the situation is much better than the past.
And we have defined our strategy in this aspect through giving loans to people with public and government jobs in return for their assigning their salaries and a guarantee of a colleague of theirs and this on our opinion is the best guarantee for getting our money back.
Q. How do you evaluate the Central Bank's policy dealing with other banks, the financial policies and the central bank's monitory role?
A. The Central Bank performs a leading role and is a pioneer in this field. It is considered the best in the Middle East, and could surely reach the level of the giant central banks in the capitals countries.
Q. What is your vision of the monetary development process?
A. As mentioned in the first question we have included many new modern and facilitating banking services and this is how we contribute in the automation process of the monetary system in Yemen. We are aiming at creating a modern; highly automated banking system in all our branches and by this we will be the most automated bank in the country and hope that our level and expertise will be able the most compete with any European or American bank.
Q. How do you view the investment process in Yemen, and are there any obstacles against it?
A. Investment in Yemen is quiet good. Yemen is a raw country in which there are great potentials and a good market. We are hoping for a bright future for Aden especially with the Free Zone project and we hope that this would bring back the glorious days of the economic capital of Yemen. And there are no real obstacles against the investment process in Yemen.
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