Investment in Aden Free Zone [Archives:2003/680/Business & Economy]

Mahyoub Al-Kamaly
The free zone authority in Aden has in the past nine months granted licenses to a number of projects with a total value amounting to $46.7 million. The projects were 39 for public services, 10 for trade, 4 warehouses projects and 6 multi-activity projects. All those projects employ about 900 of local Yemeni labour.
Sources at the free zone said investment indicators were good, especially that their rate had receded during the past two years by 25% because of the Yemeni ports and investment activities had been affected by blasting incidents of the USS Cole destroyer at Aden port in 2000 and the explosion in the French oil supertanker Limburg in 2002 and before that the events of 11 September in the United States.
The sources have made it clear that the overall volume of the capital licensed for installation investment projects in various areas reached YR13 billion while the value of the foreign capital has reached at $one million. Industrial projects proportion out of the total invested capital in local currency amounted to 32.1% and the foreign currency 41.9%. The tourist projects proportion amounted to 69.8% and trade projects by 19%.
It is expected that these projects would help employ 30 thousand of local labour while the value of projects licensed by the state authority for investment, whose number are about 1022 projects, is estimated at YR 266 billion and fixed assets estimated at YR 53 billion accommodating about 26884 workers from both sexes. Reports mention that the number of implemented projects in the free zone is about 147 with an investment cost of YR200 billion and fixed assets of YR11billion.there are about 72 projects under construction at a value of YR 53 billion and assets reaching to YR13 billion accommodating about 3256 workers.
For developing the infrastructure needed for big investments the government has allotted the second five-year plan 2001-2005 a sum of YR 74.3 billion. The plan has given the Yemeni and foreign privates sector an opportunity to take part in implementation of the investment projects according to the latest investment systems. One of the most important projects of investment in the free zone in Aden is that of container port. Naval sources at the container port in Aden mention that there is an increase in numbers of unloaded containers reached during the past months of this year about 5000 containers while the port of Aden has received about 200188 ships carrying more than one million containers in 2002. The sources also said that retreat in the port receiving of ships was because the consequences of the campaign against terror and imposition of insurance premiums on ship bound for the Yemeni ports and in consequence the country has lost in 2002 about $ 7 million.
Director of the Yemeni company for investment and international development (Yeminvest) Adnan al-Kaff explains that that despite of the increasing demand for using it by international navigation companies, the container port has not yet been operated to its full capacity. He further says that the port is capable of receiving more containers especially after the arrival of a new crane to the port, among such cranes are five giant cranes that would help sped up accommodation of more containers.
Statistical reports mention that the total verified customs revenues in the free zone in 2002 amounted to about YR 19 billion.
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