Yemen, WB talk on boosting cooperation

President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi met on Wednesday evening in his residence in the U.S. capital Washington with President of the World Bank (WB) Group, Jim Yong Kim. In the meeting, the president reviewed with the WB’s President the existing cooperation areas between Yemen and the Bank and prospects for boosting them in light of the exceptional circumstances witnessed by Yemen. The president hailed the efforts made by the Bank in supporting Yemen to overcome the challenges facing it. “ Yemen has experienced a political, economic and security crisis that was about to devastate it, but it chose the path of reconciliation and dialogue to exit the crisis”, the president said. The crisis has negatively affected the citizen’s living, the president added noting to the additional burdens born by Yemen due to the flow of refugees from the Horn of Africa as well as the internal displacement as a result of the terrorism acts and the political crisis. He valued the Bank’s attention and its support to the development process in Yemen, looking forward to increase this support to meet urgent needs in social welfare expenses and reducing unemployment and poverty. The President commended the efforts made by Director of the WB’s office in Sana’a and his understanding for the urgent development needs in Yemen. For his part, the WB’s President expressed his admiration for the great course of qualitative and unique transformation witnessed by Yemen over a year ago and the extraordinary successes at the level of economic and security stability, as well as the functioning of the national dialogue conference, which is a contributing factor in the process of economic reform and community building . He pointed to the bank's role in supporting the dialogue conference urging the donors to fulfill their commitments to end poverty and unemployment in Yemen. The WB’s President confirmed the Bank’s keenness to continue its partnership with Yemen and to provide advice and support to overcome the difficulties encountering the process of development and economic reforms.