[27 August 2007] SANA'A, (Saba)- An informed source has stated that a tourist city of a cost estimated at $5 billion, funded by investors from UAE, would be built in Socotra Island.

Head of the General Authority for Islands Development (GAID), Yahya Mutaher said that an investment company from the United Arab Emirates would carry out the project in Socotra.

Mutaher said the project goes in line with investment opportunities decalred at the conference of exploring investment opportunities in Yemen held in Sana'a last April, pointed that other 12 tourist projects would be implemented in the country by investors from the United Arab Emirates.

Yemen has recently nominated Socotra Island to the contest of new7wonders of natural monuments and sites to be announced on August 08, 2008.

Socotra is a 3625 km² island located in the Indian Ocean, some 450 km south of the Yemeni economic city of Aden but it is a part of Hadhramout province of Yemen.

With estimated population 45,000, Socotra Island has three geographical terrains: the narrow coastal plains, a limestone plateau permeated with karstic caves, and the Haggier Mountains which rise to 5000 feet.

YA/NS

Saba