São Paulo – The World Bank (IBRD) announced on Wednesday (19) the disbursement of a US$ 9.2 million loan to Yemen and called for the international community to comply with their commitments made in 2012. At a meeting in country capital Sana’a, the IBRD, local authorities and representatives of other countries agreed to promote a high-level conference in September this year to promote the development of Yemen.
Of the US$ 9.2 million disbursed, US$ 5 million will be used in the Project for Modernisation of Public Finances, which makes the use of public funds by 17 ministries and three departments of the government of Yemen more transparent. This program had already received US$ 12 million from the World Bank in 2011.
Another US$ 4.2 million will be used in the Pilot Project for Revitalisation of Companies and Jobs. The target is to allow for the hiring of 400 interns by private companies installed in Yemen and to help 400 small companies to improve their products and processes and to get into new markets. The total disbursed now is part of a US$ 900 million that forecasts the development of areas considered important to the country.
Call for donations
The World Bank also called on Wednesday for the International community to comply with the commitments made to Yemen in 2012. Last year, a meeting promoted to call for donations in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, generated commitments totalling US$ 7.9 billion to support the political transition of the country. Up to now US$ 2 billion have been donated.
The IBRD director for Egypt, Djibouti and Yemen, Hartwig Schafer, said that the Yemeni have been demonstrating courage to “head on a route to peace and [generation of] opportunities”. “The international community, in exchange, engaged on a partnership based on donations and know-how to accompany Yemen in this journey,” said Schafer, according to a press statement by the institution.
At the meeting promoted on Wednesday in Sana’a, the World Bank stated that local authorities need to make an effort to guarantee expansion of economic reforms to support the political transition in the country. The IBRD and Yemen should establish, at the conference in September, an economic reform calendar to be implemented and aimed at promoting job generation in the private sector, transparency and social assistance to the most vulnerable.
*Translated by Mark Ament
