President meets with women leaders in Hadramout

MUKALA, April 07 (Saba) – President Ali Abdullah Saleh met here on Wednesday with the women leaders and cadres in Hadramout province. In his speech during the meeting, President Saleh said “We listened during this meeting to a number of private and public demands and we are ready with the local authority to meet the needs of women in Hadramout province”. He noted that the woman represents a half of society and she has the right to employment and to participate effectively in the political work and in all sites of work and production and she deserves all that. “We give women all the attention, and through our dialogue with the political forces we assert that women should actively participate in the political work and should be helped to gain access to parliamentary seats, and we should allocate 15 percent of the seats parliament and the public jobs for women”, Saleh said. In this regard President Saleh said “If there are university graduates and professionals from women in the field of oil, we are ready to employ them to work in this area and the Oil Ministry has to implement these directives.” President Saleh directed the government to allocate YR 200 million ($ 1= YR 224) for establishing an indoor hall of training women and practicing women activities in the province. “We recognize that there are requirements for building educational complexes and if there are potentials and improvement in the state’s resources, we are ready to construct those educational complexes in all provinces but if the situation remains as bad as it is now due to the global financial crisis and its consequences on our country, it is difficult to establish them”, President Saleh explained. He added that although our country is large and rich of population as Yemen population census amount to about 24 million people, but our resources are scarce and our oil exports are slight. In this regard, President Saleh noted that the production of oil sectors in Yemen is very limited and it is about 270 thousand barrels per day, and the proceeds are modest and represent main tributary for the state to pay the salaries of employees and to finance infrastructure projects and development requirements in all provinces. “We have started exporting gas a year ago through the port of Balhaf in Shabwa province and the gas revenues this year, the first year, are about $ 229 million”, President Saleh went on. BA Saba