Representatives of Gulf Funds convene next November [Archives:2006/945/Business & Economy]

Mahyoub Al-Kamali
The United Kingdom government has accepted to host a donors conference on mustering resources for financing development projects in Yemen. It is scheduled for the conference to be held in London on 22-23 November. The British government has officially informed the Yemeni government its acceptance to host this important conference that is will be under sponsorship of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

The Yemeni Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Abdulkarim Al-Arahabi says, “The convening of this conference comes under initiative of the GCC states as part of the efforts for qualifying the Yemeni economy in preparation for its incorporation with Gulf economies.” He has added that “The conference aims at mobilization of resources and providing funding for the development process in Yemen as well as implementation of the Yemeni five-year plan. The conference also aims at providing support necessary for the developmental plan aimed at qualifying the Yemeni economy so that to approach the level of the Gulf economies and would facilitate its incorporation with them.”

The conference is expected to largely be attended by donor organizations and state representatives, mainly by the GCC states and their regional funds beside states and international organizations including Germany, Holland, Japan, and the United States of America in addition Britain, the host country. It would be also attended by the World Bank, the UN and the European Commission as well as new donors.

In a statement to Yemeni News Agency, Mr Al-Arhabi has said that the acceptance came after the ministry of planning and international cooperation had held last month technical meetings in Riyadh and Sana'a to follow up what had been agreed on in the meeting of the GCC Foreign Ministers and Yemeni Foreign Minister and the expatriates on the 1st of March 2006.

That meeting had discussed measures for qualifying Yemen for incorporation with the Gulf economies in compliance to decisions taken by the GCC summit in Abu Dhabi and after the discussion of the project that president Ali Abdullah Saleh had presented in this regard. The Minister has further said that the meetings were devoted to discussing and determining Yemen's developmental needs and preparation of a working plan and certain programs and the time ceiling in accordance with an investment program covering the period from 2006 to 2010, in preparation to presenting that at an international conference of donors whose date has been fixed in November this year. In the second week of this May there will be a joint meeting comprising officials from the Yemeni ministry of planning and the GCC general secretariat, and participation of the World Bank and the British ministry of international development, in addition to members of the joint technical delegation.

The meeting would be devoted to review what the Yemeni Planning Ministry has accomplished concerning necessary documents and studies regarding the holding of the donors conference. The Minister added that the meting will be preceded by a meeting gathering officials from the planning ministry and officials from the GCC secretariat with officials of regional funds of the GCC. The meeting is to discuss and evaluate the prioritized development projects presented by Yemen, especially pertaining to infrastructure projects which need funding as part of the measures for qualifying the Yemeni economy for joining the Gulf economies.

Meanwhile, sources at the Yemeni ministry of planning and international cooperation announced that representatives of the Gulf funds, the Arab fund for economic and social development, OPEC fund and Islamic bank for development would hold a series of meetings in Sana'a by the end of this May. The sources said the meetings will study the projects studied by the Yemeni government and discuss the process of financing them according to economic studies. They will also discuss building new projects. The projects proposed to be financed by the Gulf funds focus on those of infrastructure in sectors of roads, education, electricity, water and sewage, dams and transport.

Meeting of the funds comes within the four tracks agreed on in meetings of the Yemeni government and the technical committee, aiming at meeting financing needs for qualifying the Yemeni economy to be incorporated with the Gulf economies.
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