Investment in Yemen IslandsArabs and Africans meet to talk about tourism strategies [Archives:2004/785/Last Page]
October 28 2004
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A meeting between leaders from the Yemeni Islands Development Authority (YIDA) and a number of Ambassadors from Arab and African countries was held on Sunday Oct. 24. The participants in the meeting reviewed the ongoing preparations for holding the first international conference on the investment on the Yemeni Islands (YI) on Nov. 30, 2004.
The conference aims at recognizing the Yemeni Islands, their natural, tourist and economic significance, the environmental diversity and the cultural heritage of their inhabitants.
The efforts of Ambassadors, in making the international conference a success through communicating with the companies and the investing parties in their countries, were discussed in the meeting.
The goal behind this conference is to attract investment and those who possess the capitals to establish entrepreneurial projects that contribute to the development of the infrastructure of the Yemeni Islands.
The investors can get benefit from previous experiences concerning the administration of the Arab and World Islands, the methods of investment in them, and conducting the studies and researches which contribute to tourism promotion in such islands.
In the meeting, Secretary of Foreign Ministry for Arab, Asian & African Affairs, Hussein Taher, Dr. Awad Bamatraf, Chairman of the YIDA and Yahya Al-Kain'ey General Director of the YIDA offered a brief review about the YIDA's activities in developing the Yemeni Islands and upgrading their infrastructure in collaboration with the concerned sides in all the Governorates.
They briefly talked about the nature of Yemeni Islands, their characteristics and tourist features as well as to know about the divisions of these islands and the environmental diversity for each. They also offered a derailed explanation on the aims of the international conference and the opportunities and areas of development and investment available in the Yemeni Islands.
On the other hand, a number of Arab, Asian and African Ambassadors proposed their views and notes about the importance of holding the Sana' a conference on tourist promotion for the Yemeni Islands. They stressed that the appointment of holding the conference is nearing and this in turn will hinder communication with their governments in a better way. So, they claimed the conference to be postponed till May 2005 and insisted on preparing for it well.
Local and foreign observers criticized the responsible authority, which is organizing the conference for their urgent call for a conference on the investment in the Yemeni Islands before studying the investment-attracting factors for these Islands. One of the Ambassadors said to the Yemen Times that the concerned authorities are recommended to benefit from the experiences of some other islands such as (Sishil and Singapore), in the areas of infrastructure and conducting studies.
The participants expressed some kind of pessimism about whether the conference will be a success or not and achieve the hoped for results.
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