YEMEN TO TAKE PART IN ESCWA MEETINGS IN BEIRUT

SANA'A, May 13 (Saba) - Yemen is to participate in the session 26th of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) to be convened in Lebanon on Wednesday, the weekly 26 reported on Thursday.

Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Abdul-Karim al-Arhabi will head the Yemeni delegation to the meeting, Undersecretary of the Planning Ministry, head of the Yemeni delegation in the preparatory committee Mohammed al-Hawiri said.

Al-Hawiri said that the two-day meetings would address the ESCWA programs, consultations and building capacities in the coming two years in areas of water, energy, transport and women.

The meeting of the senior officials that would precede the ministerial meeting will focus on issues pertaining to youth, creating job opportunities and the institutional construction in addition to ESCWA's activities since the session 25th and action plan of 2010 – 2011.

The meeting will be held under the auspices of the Lebanese speaker of the Parliament Nabih Berri. Several international and Arab figures will take part in the meeting including the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Secretary General Abdul Rahman al-Attiyah and the UN Under-Secretary-General and ESCWA Executive Secretary Bader AlDafa.

ESCWA's member states are Yemen, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria and United Arab Emirates.

AF/AF