[10/04/2018 12:14]

CAIRO-SABA
Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Dr Ebtihaj Al-Kamal stated that the government has sought to re-stabilize the economy and invigorate labor market. Job-creating projects, most notably are steadiness- enhancing programs have been carried in the rural areas in four provinces.

These programs established in cooperation with the International Organization for Labor and other international agencies

Speaking at the 45th Round of Arab Labor Conference convened in Cairo, the minister said:" Following more than two years of the Houthi militia coup against the legitimate government and the ongoing war economic growth has seriously shrunk, businesses have ceased, infrastructure has been largely destructed.

She added that : "Poverty rates have been increasingly staggering from 34.4% in 2014 up to twofold in 2016. At the meantime the figure of people who need humanitarian assistance has amounted to 20 million including 10 million children, that is to say some 80% of the population have become poor".

Al-Kamal noted that labor market has been facing numerous challenges because of the war. Government's plans aimed to create job opportunities have been suspended, donors support is being focused on humanitarian aids instead of development and private-sector businesses seriously damaged so that hundreds of thousands of young men have become jobless.

The Minister of Social Affairs and Labor stated that in 2017 foreign exchange rates went sharply up against the Yemeni Rial with 109 percentage compared with 2014. As a result prices of basic commodities rose too.

Al-Kamal mentioned that some oil firms exploited the escalation of conflict to depart the country without any notice in advance, to escape their obligations toward the workers' rights. Among these companies are French Total, Norway Oil Firm and British Security Guard (4 S G ).

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