OPINIONEconomic Illusions [Archives:2006/979/Business & Economy]
Raidan Al-Saqqaf
[email protected]
Yemen's Economic and Financial reforms has left a palpable sense of frustration among citizens over the reverse impact of these reforms. It may thus appear naive and counterproductive to suggest that Yemen needs to go beyond reforms and ensuring that our economic systems work and instead move foreign investment to the top of our priority list. The roots of the current economic underdevelopment in Yemen do not lie in the non-existence of capital to move the market and grow the economy, but Yemen's underdevelopment is because of the non-existence of an Economic and Financial System that works.
The irony of Yemen's economic policy is that it is short-term. First, A large portion of our natural resources are not channelled towards creating means of sustainable economic development, but it is channelled towards covering the day-to-day operations of the government. Second, the government of Yemen seems to ignore any piece of advice or recommendations on how to develop and habilitate the economy, a good example is how Yemen intentionally ignored integrating that economic rehabilitation plan laid down by the Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC) in Yemen's third national plan in order to facilitate Yemen's accession into the GCC, another manifestation of the Prime Minister's Mumbo-Jumbo remarks on Yemen's relationship with the GCC.
And lastly, Yemen's policy makers seems to be enjoying the high level of corruption within government circles and ensuring that any Anti-corruption campaign fails by endorsing the following activities: bribery, dishonesty, imposed commissions, committing fraud, abusing power and authority, tailoring contracts to avoid tenders, duplication of efforts, etc
It is very logical that some half a million government employees will ensure that any anti-corruption campaign will fail because these activities constitute much of their income, and these activities are the 'additional means' that will help them survive the stagnating economy and the reserve impact of Yemen's Economic and Financial reforms. This culture of 'additional means' have become synonymous with hard work, as people who know how to generate 'additional means' of income mainly through activates of corruption, then these set the standard for their peers, colleagues and society.
A friend of mine was a government official in the ministry of education, who was in charge of administering the marking process of primary school graduate which is a centralized process coordinated by the Ministry. Being a honest person of high calibre, he insisted to follow up the whole procedure and detected many cases of cheating and copying among students, only to be offered millions of cash as bribes and 'additional means', only to be seen by his colleges, family and society as the fool who refused additional means of making money and surviving the harshness of failed economic and financial reforms imposed by the government. Why would all his pears and the half-a-million government employees refuse the additional means and choose to live in poverty and bear the consequences of poor policy making?
Indeed, without returning to the illusion of attacking tons of investments to give every one three or four jobs and cut back on the dependence on 'additional means' of financing, the government of Yemen and the Country's Economic policy makers need to be able to set conditions allowing a reliable system to function, and integrate long-term economic measures into our current plans through investing in sustainable development means. Despite the complexity of the issue there is no Midas touch that will sustain our natural resources long enough because all indicators show that Yemen's economic scenario is heading towards a collision course. Unless, of course, our policy makers adopt some decency and choose to build a country for the next generations, not harvest all its resources to satisfy their short-sightedness.
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