http://www.english.hadhramaut.info Japanese support to Yemen reaches USD 47 mln in 2010 [The Source: SANA"A/hadhramaout.info/sabanews.net - 27/06/2010] Deputy Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Hisham Sharaf appreciated on Sunday the initiative of Japan's government to lift the ceiling of its support to Yemen to reach USD 47 million. This came during a press conference held in Sana'a, during which Sharaf point to the growing development witnessed by the cooperation relations between Yemen and Japan. Sharaf pointed out that the ceiling of Japanese support to Yemen has increase during the period from April 2009 to March 2010, as much as two times and a half of the previous ceiling.He confirmed that there is Japanese understanding for the nature of Yemen needs, noting that the Yemeni government made a request to the Japanese government for the allocation of scholarships for Yemeni students in Japanese universities.In this regard, he noted that Tokyo offers annually 50 short-term training scholarships under the Japanese-Yemeni cooperation in the field of human capacity development.Yemen hopes to boost cooperation with Japan in investments field said, Sharaf said affirming in this regard that there are intensive efforts to activate the investment environment in Yemen and to attractive foreign investments.He added Yemen has experienced campaigns to discredit its reputation and provoke confusion about the security situation in the country, which are nothing more than false campaigns refuted by the fact of the investment environment improvement in Yemen.The growing development in the Yemeni-Japanese cooperation relations has come as a result of the successful visit of President Ali Abdullah Saleh recently to Japan, Sharaf indicated. For his part, the Japanese ambassador to Sana'a Mitsunori Namba affirmed Japan's keenness to boost bilateral cooperation areas with Yemen, noting that there Japanese trends to raise the ceiling of developmental to support presented to Yemen in future. He pointed his country's understanding for the nature of economic and security challenges faced by Yemen, especially with regard to piracy crimes in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. In this connection, the Japanese ambassador pointed out that his country had sent two warships and an aircraft equipped with a security survey devices to the region, in addition to providing the capacity of Yemen Coastguard Forces with advanced training programs in the fields of combating piracy and maritime security.