Yemen and World Bank (WB) are to commence official talks in Saturday.

For this purpose, a high-level delegation of WB will arrive on Saturday to hold the talk session that will be co-chaired by Deputy Premier for Economic Affaires and Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Abdul Karim al-Arhabi and WB Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa Region Daniela Gressani. Head of the Foreign Aid Coordination Unit at the Planning and International Cooperation Ministry Nabil Shaiban said that the talk session would be dedicated for discuss the arrangements for the country assistance for Yemen for 2009 – 2013. The session will deal with the assistance priorities for human development sectors and the WB future interference for the purpose of promoting such sectors, Shaiban made clear. The two sides will discuss enhancing the common cooperation with WB to assist Yemen to overcome challenges facing Yemen in realizing the development millennium goals by 2015. The WB's portfolio includes supporting Yemen in economic areas, particularly in alleviating poverty, improving the non-petroleum economic sectors and reinforcing reforms in investment and enterprises environment. Worth mentioning is that WB has approved earlier that its development assistance will be offered to Yemen as gifts rather than loans from 2009.