Name of the Delegate: Purbita Datta Majumder

Committee: UNESCAP
Country: Yemen
Economic growth refers to an increase in the productive capacity of a country as a result of which the economy
is capable of producing additional quantities of goods and services. Since a persons standard of living is
determined by the amount of goods and services available, higher economic growth is synonymous to higher
standards of living and thus, is crucial for the overall progress of a nation.
Yemen believes that long term economic development depends upon the strengthening of the domestic labor
force, establishment of a healthy and supportive investment environment, cultivation of the private sector and
better management of resources available to a country. This improvement can only be brought about by infusing
a layer of senior civil servants in the government, with appropriate capabilities, to form a capable and legitimate
state and ensuring that they have a degree of authority and protection from political pressure. Also, dependency
on any one natural resource to uphold the financial status of a country can prove to be detrimental to its
prosperity. A diversified economy is ideal as it is essentially more robust and fruitful. In context with the above
mentioned points, Yemen has diversified its economy by introducing export of Natural Gas apart from just
Petroleum to its market and has allocated $2.8 billion towards infrastructure projects with the main aim of
lifting the economy out of recession. Yemen is also tackling fuel subsidies to alleviate the looming fiscal crisis
and continuing negotiations to secure an IMF programme.
Yemen also feels that the Friends of Yemen organization co-chaired by the U.K and Saudi Arabia has assisted
greatly in stabilizing the prevailing political and economic situation and that such organizations must be formed
more often to help out nations in need of support.
On a more general note, common solutions for world economy can also be arrived at. General economic
problems include unemployment, poverty and inflation.
1) Schemes for guaranteed employment, incentives for job preservation and adoption of labor based
approaches in infrastructure can curb unemployment. Making financial services like insurance and loan
available to individuals who wish to run their own small businesses can help solve the problem of
poverty.
2) Government can increase taxes, reasonably to improve the budget situation. Also, increased interest
rates on loans will result in cheaper imports and a reduced demand of exports which will in turn help
preserve resources.
3) Transparency of government affairs must be brought about. This will induce ethicality and automatically
uproot vices like cronyism and corruption from the system.
4) Finally, in special post-conflict areas, importance must be given towards efforts to prevent any further
conflict. Thus military expenses must be cut down and re-employment of youth and growth of
infrastructure must be made the prime activities to be conducted with whatever resources and monetary
deposits there are left.
Yemen has recovered its economy appreciably from an annual GDP growth rate of -10.5 in 2012 to +4.4 in
2014. It has recovered successfully from past political and social turmoil and believes that it will continue to
emerge victorious the years to come.