Almotamar.net - President of the Public Authority for Investment in Yemen Salah Al-Attar said Wednesday the licensed investment projects in the past 15 years created around 166 thousand job opportunities in number of vital sectors.

He added since the establishment of the Authority in 1992 up till now 6 thousand licenses have been granted at a cost exceeding one trillion riyals and created about 166 thousand job opportunities in many areas most important are industry and agriculture and the proportion of implementation in the licensed projects amounts to 62%.

In an interview with almotamar.net Mr. Al-Attar said encouraging investment in Yemen is the sole solution for the problem of poverty and unemployment as well as improvement of income level through the private sector investments and the state cannot be the first official. He pointed out that the government cannot absorb all human energies because 60% of the Yemeni people are under the age of 28 years and consequently there are great potentials of the youth who will enter the labour market and the government cannot absorb all those.

Al-Attar deemed the investment law in Yemen as very advanced compared to the neighbouring countries laws and measures, counting facilities and characteristics of the Yemeni law. He has also revealed government tendencies of preparing an investment map including all investment opportunities all over Yemen and supporting the idea of investment in the sector of internet services.

Regarding the crisis of investment infrastructure Al-Attar said the talk of president Ali Abdullah Saleh at the conference on exploration of investment opportunities in Yemen was very clear as he called on the international, Arab and local private sector to invest in these areas: the sector of energy, water desalination and roads, adding that the Authority is ready to cooperate with all companies.