Yemen needs billions to reach goals [Archives:2006/994/Local News]

SANA'A, Oct. 29 ) Yemen will need US $48 billion to reach the Millennium Development Goals, says Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Abdul-Karim Ismael Al-Arhabi. The financial gap to reach the goals amounts to US $17 billion.

Al-Arhabi said Yemen is determined to join the Millennium Challenge Account. It's an mechanism proposed by President Bush to implement a new model for providing foreign aid to the world's developing nations.

Last year, the Millennium Challenge Account suspended Yemen from the program for 2006 because of shortcomings in Yemen's reform indexes.

Al-Arhabi made it clear the financial gap with regard to the implementation of the investment program in the plan of economic and social development for poverty alleviation 2006-2010 is not more than US $10 billion, especially as poverty decreased by 35.5 percent compared to recession by 11 percent in the previous years.

The size of the investment program in the plan amounts to US $25 billion, of which US $16 billion will be used for building new projects, he added.
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