President Saleh meets German development minister

BERLIN, Nov 23 (Saba) – President Ali Abdullah Saleh met here on Tuesday with the German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul. In the meeting, they discussed the Yemeni- German mutual cooperation relationsin economic and technical fields as well as the German support to development and economic reforms and the fight against poverty in Yemen. For his side, President Saleh praised the Yemeni-German friendship mutual relations and the German support for democracy and economic development in Yemen. He welcomed German investments in Yemen and affirmed that facilities would be offered to German investors. The German minister expressed her comfort for the progress in the Yemeni-German mutual cooperation relations and valued Yemen’s anti-terrorism efforts and its achievements in development and democracy fields. She affirmed the German support for Yemen in various fields due to benefit the interests of the two countries. During the meeting Saleh has called for establishing a European fund for supporting political and democratic reforms in the region for boosting the development fields there. Meanwhile, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Ahmad Mohammad Sofan and Wieczorek-Zeul signed the agreement of financial cooperation with Yemen for 2004, under which Germany would grant Yemen 27 millionseuro for infrastructure projects. JW/KM SABA