Reorganization of popular marketplaces, a necessity [Archives:2004/729/Business & Economy]

Mahyoub Al-Kamaly
The council of ministers has formed a committee from specialized parties to work for reorganization of popular marketplaces in Yemen particularly in the aftermath of a trailer crash inside the marketplace of Yarim in the governorate of Ibb that caused the death and injury of a number of shopping people and others who happened to be near the scene of the incident. The incident has reminded the government of the existing misplanning that is in distributing those markets.
Popular marketplaces are found in the capital Sana'a and major cities and distributed at small and narrow areas and very crowded. They are moreover a source of disturbance and annoyance for the inhabitants of the quarters where they are present. These marketplaces deform the beautiful images of the cities entrances and major centres especially the markets specialized in selling qat, the non-nutritious stuff the Yemenis consume for giving themselves a sense of ease at the time of siesta and usually has detrimental impact on the environment and human and cleanliness.
For reorganization and redistribution of those marketplaces in the capital and major cities the government needs investment funds for buying areas of land for building new market areas n modern methods and for being spacious allowing teams of civil defence and police to have access to them for implementing their tasks in emergencies.
But the problem lies in abstention of some capital owners from investment in the marketing sector and very rarely the private sector would take the initiative to invest in building popular markets because rents of small shops in those markets are low.
The other challenge before reorganization of such markets is in the capital is the remoteness of pieces of land suitable for building such markets from population areas despite of the fact that the organisation process has many positives. Most important of such benefits and positives are reducing crowdedness and the noise produced by loudspeakers used by sellers using movable carts.
The government hopes to overcome these challenges and organizing popular markets and push away their ill impact on the citizens, public order, environment and beauty of cities.
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