Population explosion [Archives:2003/640/Local News]

President Ali Abdullah Saleh warned against an inevitable population explosion that would exhaust all Yemen's resources, according to news published in Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper beginning of this month. “The point is not giving birth, it is providing a decent life to our children in all walks of life so that their existence does not become a burden on the society” he said in the Unification 13th anniversary celebration two weeks ago in Seyoun and Hadramout.
President Saleh encouraged religious scholars and family guidance-related people to push further in this field and to work hard for better family planning and awareness among the Yemeni people. Statistics indicate that in 1994 birth rate was 3.7%, one of the highest in the world, and today the population is more than 18 million people. President Ali Abdullah Saleh also called on inhabitants of Hadramout and all agricultural authorities to utilize the huge landscape in the area, especially to plant palm trees, a trade that is dwindling and approaching extinct in Yemen. He said that dates are a beneficial product and could be invested better as well as tourism in general.
“There is no excuse for the decline of tourism in Yemen especially that the government has taken strict measurers in security and in encouraging investment”.
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