[19 November 2007]

SANA'A, Nov. 19 (Saba) - Civil Service and Insurance Minister Hamoud al-Sufi has confirmed that the decentralization system had became a national culture and popular certainty supported by political will and also one of the common denominators among the political parties in the country.

At a workshop relating to reviewing and discussing the evaluation results of decentralization support program and domestic development financed by donor countries and organizations, al-Sufi said "we don't seek within financial and administrative decentralization to better the governmental practices as much as we adopt a manner has legislative authority existing in the constitution and laws".

For his part, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) representative in Yemen Flavia Pansieri hailed Yemen's experience in practicing the local authority system.

"Yemen is the only country which practicing the decentralization system in the region", said Pansieri, confirming UNDP would continue its financial and technical support to the country's decentralization system for developing it.

The workshop was organized last Sunday in Sana'a by Local Administrative Ministry in cooperation with the donor partners.

NN/YA

Saba