WB urges Yemen to amend investment law

SANA'A, Sep. 05 (Saba)- The World Bank urged Yemen to apply
institutional separation between bodies organizing foreign
investments and those propagating for them and to apply stable and
concentrated process reforms for improving investment climate.

A final report prepared by WB's Consultative Office for Foreign
Investments Services has called for applying national strategy
propagating for foreign investments sponsored by General Investment
Authority (GIA), London based al-Hayah Newspaper reported.


The report indicated that the Yemeni authorities have issued
investment law No. 22 in 2002 and contains financial privileges for
encouraging foreign investments and grants GIA wide authorities for
facing shortages in regulative and bureaucratic fields.

The report said that it was expected from the country to have
measures attracting foreign investors but Yemen has failed to
achieve its aims in field of foreign investment because financial
resources did not restore faults in policies or regulative areas.

International Funding Corporation's Director of Business Environment
in Middle East Area Franck Sader highlighted efforts achieved by the
Yemeni government in creating factors of law and legal environment
attracting investments. He also highlighted reforms made on tax and
income law and easing measures in trade and investment dealings.

Head of the experts team who prepared the report Yousef Batabita
said that Yemen was numbered 140 in the international list
concerning performance of attracting foreign investments,
highlighting advantages of Aden Port's Geographical location for the
four past decades.

He stressed the importance of going on in carrying out the project
of improving Yemeni Port Cities, expecting that the forthcoming
years would witness touchable improvements in investment
capabilities in Yemen.