President: coming period will witness further developments

TAIZ, Oct. 22(Saba)- President Ali Abdullah Saleh said that the coming period would witness huge developments in different walks of life. In his address to the nation on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, president Saleh congratulated people on this religious occasion and said that after the vacation of Eid, Yemen will potential movement on the pathway to make real economic reform and fighting corruption and poverty and making living standards much better. There would be amendments of laws and new legislations that enhance transparency, reduce the rate of unemployment and provide equal job opportunities, he said. He promised that the coming period would witness improvement in living standards of people and democracy. He called on all Yemenis inside and outside the country to work together in order to build up the nation. He considered the recent election as new beginning towards strengthening democratization, respecting human rights and freedom as well as making peaceful transferring of power. “The election is ahead step to extend participation in making decisions and women empowerment in the political life”, he said. He renewed his call for all political parties to adopt “the soul of cooperation and tolerance to pass bad impacts of election campaigns”. He said that he would do his best to be at the level of trust that Yemeni people has granted him to continue the process of security, development and prosperity in the country. He said that a meeting for settling revenge cases will be held as such a phenomenon has negative impacts on economic and social development in the society. He called on all to gather efforts to put an end for this phenomenon. He expressed hope that the consultative group meeting for Yemen’s development partners, to be held in London next November, would come out with positive results to support the process of development and democracy as well as Yemen’s membership in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Saleh pointed to the role of tribes in protecting the achievements and standing against the country’s enemies. He also highly appreciated the role of military and security forces as “the guard of unity, democracy and development in the country”. “We will remain honest with them since they are the power in hand of people and the guard of building up process,” Saleh said. AH/NS