Yemen seeks to increase WB's support to development

Yemen and World Bank (WB) have held a talk session in Washington, the USA, on enhancing the mutual cooperation relations. The session held on Friday was brought together Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Mohammed al-Sa'adi, Finance Minister Sakhr al-Wajih and Education Minister Abdul-Razzaq al-Ashwal from the Yemeni side with Inger Andersen, the WB Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa region. They discussed also the possible means to increase the WB's support to the development projects and plans in Yemen. Andersen said that the WB is speeding up procedures to finalize the tender and agreements documents to begin the implementation of the project of Taiz-Aden road (highway) and also the financing of the project of wind power generation in Mocha city in coordination with international partners. The Bank also has made assessments to dozens of projects in Yemen, especially in remote areas, she said. The WB official said that the WB-affiliate International Finance Corporation (IFC) is committed to continue its assessments and studies to achieve the projects allocated to Yemen. Andersen praised holding the national dialogue conference as well as the improvement of the security condition in the country, saying that has encouraged the bank to return its country team to its office in Sana'a. The Minsters also delivered speeches, reviewing the latest developments on the national arena in the political, economic, security and development fields. Yemen's underway transitional stage is reaching an important milestone after the launch of the national dialogue, the International Cooperation Minister said. Al-Sa'adi reiterated the Yemeni government's commitment to continue to coordinate with donors and development partners to allocate the rest of the donors' pledges. It is time to translate the donors' promises into concrete action by expediting their funds' allocation in order to support the development projects in Yemen, he said. He stressed that the government almost finished the procedures to form executive bureau to accelerate absorption of donors' pledges established recently to activate the mechanisms to implement the donor-funded projects in the country. In his speech, the Finance Minister Sakhr al-Wajih hailed the WB's contributions to support Yemen, which he said, is very palpable. He demanded the Bank to raise the ceiling of its investment portfolio to Yemen to meet the ongoing transitions and support the government's efforts to achieve its priorities of improving the standard of living of the Yemeni citizen and accelerating development in all fields.