Newly Appointed Canadian Ambassador to the YT: Canada doubled its fund to Yemen during President Salehs visit [Archives:2000/40/Interview]

The friendly state of Canada is one of the most important donors and contributors to development of Yemen. The Canadian role in this regard is not played only by the generous financial aid allocated to Yemen annually but through the significant services some of the leading Canadian companions operating in Yemen offer as well. During the latest visit of President Saleh to Canada, the government of Canada doubled the volume of financial aid to Yemen.
On the occasion of the arrival of the newly appointed Canadian Ambassador Melvyn. L. MacDonald, Resident in Riyadh and responsible for Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Bahrain and Oman, to Yemen in a short visit,Yemen Times Managing Editor,Mohammed Hatem Al-Qadhi met with him and filed the following short interview:
Q: How do you asses the relationship between Canada and Yemen?
A: This is my first opportunity to work in the middle east and in Arab countries. So far I have been very positive and looking forward to working closely with all the governments and industries in countries for which I have responsibility.
The relationships that Canada has with various countries in the Gulf region is very important to Canada. As we continue to look at what is happening here and the development, particularly in countries like Yemen with democratic development and the move towards more open market, we are very interested in continuing our relationships with the Gulf.
President Saleh visited Canada and he knows the interests of our prime minister and government in working with the government of Yemen. We have a number of companies that are actively engaged in the business sectors in Yemen. I hope that during the course of my assignment we will be able to look at strengthening the economic relationship between companies of trade and investment. It is important that we increase that and make good opportunities in many different areas in Yemen.
There have been already some Canadian companies working here very successfully, like Canadian Oxy in the oil and gas sector but there are areas that we want to look at and see whether there might be opportunities to develop further.
As the economy of Yemen restructures there are many other sectors and services that are important like telecommunication and the whole informatics. Canada has got many companies and different organizations which are preparing and willing to work with Yemeni partners to further expand the possibilities here. So, I think that the future is very positive with lots to do and I am looking forward to working with the government, industry people and officials to further expand our relationships.
Q: What will be your priorities?
A: My personal priorities are going to be to continue to look at the sectors in the areas that the President was looking at when he visited Canada in terms of trade development and also in terms of where Canada can be helpful as far as the areas of human rights and womens rights and democratic development are concerned. These areas are very important and Yemen has already proven to the world that it is very progressive in this regard. I hope that we can continue to work with Yemen in terms of developing these sectors. I also want to spend time trying to work with companies in Yemen as well as companies in Canada to see where there are sectors and business opportunities for further development, not only from a bilateral trading point of view but also looking into a third market where perhaps Canadian and Yemeni companies may be able to work together.
Q: Do you mean that you will have chance to further straighten the relationships between private sectors in both countries?
A: Yes I hope that would precisely be the case in sectors that I have already mentioned like oil and gas. As Yemen develops its agricultural base there may be opportunities for Canadian companies to work with Yemeni Companies in this field. Fishery is another area of interest that might be worth pursuing. Of course, high technologies, information technologies, communication technologies are also important sectors for Canada.
Q: What about your previous work?
A: I have served in Canadian foreign service for almost 30 years. I have had a number of postings. I have had 3 assignments in Japan. I have served in Italy, Norway and in Malaysia. I have experience in a number of different countries and most recently in the past four years just before coming to this part of the world I was the Minister economic commercial at the Canadian embassy in Tokyo responsible for the trade development between Canada and Japan. So my background is primarily commercial economic and I hope to be able to draw upon that experience to improve the commercial and economic relationship between Canada in the countries for which I am responsible now in the gulf.
Q: As an ambassador, do you have an idea about the aids size given by Canada to Yemen?
A: Yes I do. In fact, during the visit of President Saleh to Canada we doubled the size of the Canada fund to $ 300,000 and also the Aid Agency undertook to commit $ 1,000000 annually to Yemen. So we will certainly pursue all of the bilateral and multi-lateral programs to ensure that amount of funding is devoted towards Yemen.
Q: Any last word you would like to add?
A: I just would like to say how grateful I am to all of those people that I have met during this visit. I have had a good opportunity to meet with President, Prime minister and with the speaker of the parliament and a number of ministers and businessmen. Every body has been very welcoming and I look forward to increasing our relations.



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