Yemen Observer: http://www.yobserver.com
Posted in:
Local News
Written By: Zaid al-Alaya'a
Article Date: Jul 19, 2008 - 5:51:11 AM
Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, Abdul Karim al-Arhabi, stressed last Wednesday in his meeting with the Director of Studies and Economic Integration at the Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC ) Central Secretariat, Abdulaziz al-Uwaishiqon, the importance of keeping the discussions between Yemen and the Secretariat General of the GCC in order to quicken Yemen's entrance in the GCC.
Al-Arhabi expressed Yemen's comfort in the growing development of mutual cooperation ties between Yemen and the GCC countries.
Al-Uwaishiqi informed al-Arhabi about the results of the seventh meeting of the Yemeni-Gulf Technical Committee. On his part, al-Arhabi urged the Technical Committee's members to exert more efforts to implement these outcomes.
The meeting also reviewed a number of issues concerning the qualitative developments of the Yemeni-Gulf relations.
Apart from this, al-Arhabi affirmed the importance of allocating rest pledges of the London Donors Conference in order to carry out projects of investment within the third five year plan. This was reported during the closing session of the two-day meeting for the Yemeni-Gulf Technical Committee last week, in which al-Arhabi pointed out the notable progress in the allocation for these pledges, highlighting the results of the meeting.
He called for writing a short report about these results to present it to the coming meeting of the Gulf Foreign Ministers that will be held next September.
Al-Arhabi reviewed measures taken by the Yemeni Government to deal with the food prices increase, indicating to the cooperation between the Government and the World Food Program to conduct a survey in order to study the impacts of this increase in the poverty levels of the country.
There is another survey done by UNICEF over poverty among children. The meeting praised the notable progress in allocation of pledges, for around 75 percent of these pledges were successfully allocated.
Al-Awaishaq said that the $ 900 million agreements were signed to carry out key projects. Al-Awaishaq finally pointed out the necessity of a stronger concern on the part of the Gulf countries in order to overcome all obstacles implied in Yemen's qualification to integrate the GCC bloc.