Thawabit’s 2nd Economic Conference: Experts Say Yemen’s Economic Reforms Are on the Right Track [Archives:1998/15/Local News]
Starting on the 18th of April, Thawabit Magazine sponsors a 3-day economic conference which promises to bring out exciting details. Yemeni and foreign experts will present 36 studies on various aspects of the Yemeni economy.
Thawabit is a quarterly journal devoted to culture, development, and politics. It is edited by a number of Yemen’s leading economists, political analysts, and intellectuals.
This is the second economic conference to be organized by the Thawabit quarterly. The first was successfully held in May, 1995. The list of Yemeni and international participants in the upcoming conference is formidable.
The first session will be mainly on the experiences of economic reform in the developing countries. The governor of the Central Bank of Egypt and the former governor of the Central Bank of Jordan will share with the other participants, the experiences of the respective countries.
Also among the participants, will be Mr. Onder Sud, the head of the Middle East department at the World Bank. The Yemeni experience will be presented by Mr. Abdulaziz Abdulghani, Chairman of the Consultative Council and former prime minister.
The second session of the conference will be chaired by Dr. Qais Ghanim Noman. The papers will cover such diverse topics as structural adaptation, World Bank and IMF conditions, economic reform and the media, and population indicators with respect to the economic reform program.
Chaired by the Foreign Minister, Dr. Abdulkareem Al-Iryani, the third session will cover the issues of economic development in Yemen, the effects of liberalizing the prices of goods and services, and the effects of lifting subsidies off petroleum products.
On the second day and during the fourth session, the topic to be discussed by the participants will include economic reform and restructuring, the lack of local resources, food security, and planning and market economy.
The relationship between the economic reform inside Yemen and the outside world is the theme of the fifth session. Chaired by former prime minister Mohsin Al-Aini, this session will include the topics of international support of the economic reform program in Yemen, globalization, the economic reform trends in Yemen, foreign trade, and foreign debt rescheduling and settlement.
Later on in the evening of the second day of the conference, the sixth session will revolve around financial and monetary policies.
The first paper during this session will be presented by Professor Abdulaziz Al-Saqqaf on evaluating the monetary and financial aspects of the economic reform program. Other papers will cover such subjects as the economic and social effect of Yemeni currency flotation, the role of the banking in financial and administrative reforms, the dynamics of economic reform, and controlling inflation.
The third day will only see one evening session, in which the participants will discuss combating poverty, social security policies, the effect of public expenditure on social services, and the best possible means to activate the role of women in implementing the economic reform program.
On the last day, Monday 20 April, the eighth session will be chaired by the Minister of Planning, Mr. Abdulkader Ba-Jammal. Discussion topics will include the effects of economic reform on investments in Yemen, the future of investments, the privatization program, and the role of the private sector in the economic reform program.
Under the theme of politics and administration, the ninth session will witness the presentation of papers on legislative reform, administrative reform, the role of the political will in the administrative reform, the political dimensions of economic reform, and the policy of managing the rate of exchange mechanism in Yemen.
Last but not least, there will be a mini book fair accompanying the Second Economic Conference, which will include a large number of the Thawabit publications. There will also be Internet and e-mail services.
——
[archive-e:15-v:1998-y:1998-d:1998-04-13-p:./1998/iss15/ln.htm]
