YEMEN NEEDS $44 BLN TO IMPLEMENT 4TH FIVE YEAR PLAN, SAYS SHARAF

ABU DHABI, March 29 (Saba)- Deputy Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Hisham Sharaf made clear on Monday that Yemen requires $44 billion to manage to implement the 4th Five Year Plan for Economic and Social Development 2011-2015.

He emphasized the importance of the active partnership between Yemen and the international community to make available the amount needed, in addition to coordination and consultation in this respect.

In his remarks to the media on the sidelines of the meeting of Yemen Friends Group kicked off Monday in Abu Dhabi, Sharaf affirmed the ability of Yemen to contain these amounts during this 4th plan, noting that obtaining these resources and implementing them for serving development fields necessitates many steps, consultations and dialogs with donor community as well as setting up suitable mechanisms and tools to make best use of these necessary financial resources.

He indicated that Yemen relations with donors are based on partnership and dialogue and there are not any conditions.

Deputy minister, Sharaf, asserted that Abu Dhabi meeting is a supplementary meeting of the previous meetings and is as a result for London and Riyadh meetings' recommendations, noting that the current meeting will address Yemen's needs and what donors require.

He revealed other supplementary meetings of this meeting to be topped by a ministerial meeting in May under the chairmanship of Prince Saud Al Faisal, the Saudi Foreign Minister, to approve the recommendations which will be raised by the working groups in order to be submitted to the ministerial conference scheduled for the end of 2010 in New York.

AM/AM