January 16, 2007

Yemen to launch US$35 million fisheries project in February

Yemen is preparing to launch a new fisheries resource management and conservation project next month.

The project would be jointly carried out by the Ministry of Fisheries Wealth, the World Bank, and the European Commission, as part of the investment programme to develop the fishing sector in the country.

The project is part of the third five-year plan for 2006-2010, which allocated US$120 million to the sector. The fishing management project is government-supported, and would be launched early this year, at US$35 million, said Minister of Fisheries Wealth, Ibrahim Saghari.

The aim of the project is to develop infrastructures for the fishing sector in the country, and to organise fishery operations as well as improve the quality of fishing products, he said.

Several seaports would be refurbished and an information centre that links the ministry with all fisheries facilitated via a database would be set up. The centre would have statistics to help evaluate the performance of fishing activities in the country, he said.

The project would also fund an extension of current fishing seaports, as well as aquaculture projects in the country.

The project would support activities of the fishing associations and improve the role of marine monitoring.