Yemen achieved rate of 3.2 per cent in economic growth, PM

Cabinet annual report was met with severe criticism from opposition MPs doubting accuracy of the contained information.

Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Mujawar read a statement at a Parliament’s session attended by most of the ministers on the state of the Yemeni economy and the security situation. 

The report said that Yemen achieved a rate of 3.2 percent in economic growth during 2006, which increased to 3.6 last year, despite the drop in oil production. The non-oil sectors achieved development rates during the two previous years of 4.7 and 5.5 consecutively. 

The payment balance made a surplus rate exceeding a billion dollars and $446 million in 2006, increasing the net foreign assets to $7 billion and 149 million. However the Prime Minister attributed its last year’s $3 million drop to the decrease in oil revenue. 

Mujawar mentioned the increase in the implementation of foreign financed projects, pointing out that the pledged amounts during and after the 2006 London Donors’ Conference mounted to about $5.5 billions with a total allocation of $4 billion being allocated at 78 percent of the pledges rate.

The Prime Minister described the activation of the partnership of the local and foreign sections in carrying out joint infrastructure services projects as unprecedented, adding that the average annual increase for the individual aid raised from $13 million to 30.

The Government attributed the price increase in essential commodities, particularly the wheat, to the international rise of prices. However it admitted the higher increase rate in local markets compared to the international one, as well as the lack of quicker responses to the international drop rate.

Regarding investment activities the Prime Minister said that the invested capital at the first half of this year increased at a rate of YR50 million to that of last year, recording 30 percent increase. The job opportunities increase according to Mujawar, was 50 percent due to the fact that the general investment authority created at the first half of 2007 5,800 job opportunities in different Yemeni governorates, in addition to 8,600 opportunities during the same period of this year. 

The Prime Minister spoke of security, pointing to the challenges and negative effects it faced due to the subversive and terrorist actions in Sa’adah, as well as the al-Qaeda operations, the riots and the illegal sit-ins led by some political forces. The PM said that all these actions impacted the economic and investment situations.

He also reported that the arm spread phenomenon is being aggravated by the failure of the Parliament to endorse the weapon carrying law, asserting that the immense amount of medium arms in the hands of the citizens encourages some outlaws to seek refuge in their armed clans, to the extent that some regions are out of the state’s control and became a save haven for subversives, bandits and criminals.

The People’s General Congress’s (GPC) MP Nabil Basha wondered why the PM ignored in his report the important issue of the Supreme Elections Committee, saying that a constitutional vacuum may happen if this matter is not settled by the expiry of the voters list’s registration and check next month.
 
Basha also wondered about the Government’s follow up of YR3.5 billions while hundred millions are spoiled in oil derivatives.

He also said that he favors ending the Sa’adah war, however he showed doubts over the Government’s ability to end the war because of the regional forces whom he said, are trying to settle down their agendas at the expense of Yemeni blood.  

The opposition MP’s criticized the governmental report describing it as misleading, and contrarily to political, economic, security and legal conditions. Abdurrahman ba-Fadhal, the Islah bloc’s leader, said that the report contradicts the facts, pointing out that poverty, unemployment and corruption increased. He also stressed the decrease of Yemen’s chances in joining the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) because of the deteriorating political situation of the country. Ba-Fadhl wondered where the United Arab Emirates wheat’s grant has gone, and he had to withdraw from the session because the council’s administration did not let him finish his comments.  

The Vice Islah leader’s bloc al-Shami, asked the Prime Minister to reconsider the reports he receives because they are contrary to the facts, adding that the reports speak of poverty and unemployment decrease, while they are factually increasing. Al-Shami also reminded the PM of his promise to resolve the electricity problem by the end of 2007 while 2008 is about to finish with the electricity situation getting worse. 

The Socialist Party’s parliamentary bloc leader, Aidros al-Naqib, said that those whom the PM described as rioters were in fact practicing their legal rights, accusing the state of protecting the murderers and criminals, calling for a national reconciliation initiative to resolve the southern problems, and stop the armed aspects in a similar way that the effort realized to end the war in Sa’adah.  

The Nasserite bloc’s leader, sultan al-Atwani, proposed that the report should be submitted to the council’s committees for study, ensuring the success of the measures in stopping price decrease, contrary to the Government’s report. He also demanded a detailed report of the ending of Sa’adah’s war so that it will not be renewed, asking for the release of those who were arrested in peaceful protests particularly in the south and those who were arrested for constitutional and legal infringements. 

The independent bloc’s leader, Ali Abdo Rabo al-Qadhi, said that Sa’adah’s war continued for four years with no one in the Parliament knowing why it started or how to end it. He also stressed that the problems in the south also prove a lack of stability. He called for a comprehensive national conference that tackles the national problems with a team’s spirit.
 
It is worth mentioning that this is the first report for Mujawar’s Government since the topple of ba-Jamal’s Government. Sources said that the report will become an annual tradition in order to brief the Parliament about the Government’s activities and make use of the Parliament’s comments over the Government’s programs. 

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