[14 October 2008]

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 (Saba) - Yemen has participated in the Development Committee meeting on the sideline of annual meetings of the World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) held in Washington DC.

Yemen delegation was headed by Deputy Premier for Economic Affairs Abdul Karim al-Arhabi in membership of finance minister Numan al-Suhaybi. The meeting also was attended by the WB president Robert Zolik and Finance ministers of developing and donor countries.

During the meeting, Zolik described the Global Financial Crisis as a "Human-Made Disaster", confirming the necessity to untie the efforts to overcome it.

Zolik called on the rich countries not to backtrack on their commitments to increase assistance to developing countries.

The Development Committee also called on WB, IMF and ministers of donors' states to meet theirs commitments to the developing countries and to assist them to tackle their problems emerged due to the Global Financial Crisis and food and fuel prices hike.

The participating finance ministers indicated that their developed countries are vulnerable to setbacks as a result of the current Global Financial Crisis, calling on donor countries to meet their commitments to the developed countries and the WB to support the banks of the developed countries affected by the Global Crisis.

MD/AF

Saba