During the early hours of Saturday, May 15th, the Yemen Hunt Oil Company pipeline near station 2 at Serwah, 50 kilometers west of Marib city, was blasted. The YHOC people are busy trying to seal the leak, which is the 26th time that there has been a breach in the Khawlan section of the pipeline. The line runs from Safir to Ras Issa, north of Hodeidah on the Red Sea. Jahm tribesmen are blamed for the most recent sabotage. The 25th hole was fixed only one week ago.
Tribesmen have been disrupting the flow of oil as a way of settling disputes with the authorities.

Wednesday 19th, 1999, is the deadline for applying for membership to the Yemeni Journalists' Syndicate. "So far, we have received 982 applications," disclosed Mr. Mahboob Ali, Chairman of the YJS. He also said that, starting from the 23rd of May, a committee will screen the applications to decide which ones qualify for membership.
The YJS has introduced four kinds of memberships. Full members, those who enjoy all rights including voting and candidature rights. Non-performing members are for journalists who presently hold other jobs. Non-Yemeni journalists are called affiliated members. New graduates of journalism are Apprentice members.

On Saturday, May 15th, Agriculture Co-operative Union along with Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) started a Workshop on Co-operative Management Training. On its opening day, the workshop included a seminar on understanding co-operative organizations, how they function, how they are managed, and their benefits. On the second day, another seminar on organizational development was concluded, along with a useful case study. The workshop is scheduled to continue for three more days until the 19th of this month, where there will be more seminars and representations about co-operative management, finance and communication.

A 3-day conference entitled the First National Immigrants' Conference will conclude in Sanaa today. About 250 persons representing delegates from 30 countries of the Yemeni diaspora have participated.
Yemen Times will run a full account on this issue next week.

Organized by the writers union, Taiz branch, and in cooperation with the cultural and sports offices, and Al-Saeed Foundation for Science and culture, the Taiz 3rd cultural festival started on Saturday, 15th May and will continue for one week. The ceremony, which was kicked off with a carnival procession of kids, scouts and sportsmen, will include a large number of activities such as poetry and short story recitation, music and play shows, plastic art exhibition, a book fair and many other activities. A good number of literary men will be honored. The event was attended by many writers and artists from all over the country.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh is pushing government officials in charge of Aden to finalize implementation of some of the key projects in the governorate. Top priority is given to the Aden Free Zone, which the President will visit on the occasion of May 22, anniversary of the Re-Unification of the Nation. The President will visit the Container Terminal, which has recently become operational.
Another important project is the Socotra Island Airport. The Minister of Public Works, Eng. Abdullah Al-Dafee and a number of his assistants are working around the clock to meet the 22nd May deadline to inaugurate the airport. This is an important facility, as the island is cut off during the summer months because of tidal waves and monsoon rains.
A third key project to be inaugurated is the Safer-Hadhramaut which cuts through the Empty Quarter (Rub al-Khali), thus linking the Marib region to Wadi Hadhramaut.
There are several other projects in various governorates that are expected to be inaugurated on the 22nd of May.

In the editorial of May 3rd, Issue 18, Volume IX, the Yemen Times pointed out that monetary policy was going from bad to worse. We totally disagree, because the opposite is true, i.e., monetary policy has moved from good to better.
The Yemeni rial has not deteriorated against the US dollar, as you claim. It is actually the US dollar which has risen against all currencies, including the Yemeni rial. During the first four months of this year, the Yemeni rial has appreciated against the Euro, the Deutsche mark, the French Franc, the Swiss franc, the Brazilian rial and the Russian Ruble, etc. You therefore cannot say that the Yemeni rial is a weak currency.

Since 1996, Yemen has been pursuing a floating exchange system, which has served the country quite well. The exchange rate of the Yemeni rial is determined by market forces on a day-to-day basis. As a consequence, we have avoided the pitfalls of a pegged currency.
During the first 4 months, inflation as measured by the consumer price index has been negative, i.e., prices are falling. Real interest rates in the country are very positive, strengthening public confidence in the national currency. As evidence, the public now holds more treasury bills than the banks.

Raising interest rates last March and requiring banks to keep more of their foreign currency deposits with the Central Bank without remuneration is a well calculated monetary policy which has paid dividends as judged by the International Monetary Fund. You see, a few years ago there was no monetary policy in Yemen. Now we have one and it is flexible and effective. The principal objective of the Central Bank is price stability and it uses its monetary tools to promote this objective.

You mentioned that low dollar interest rates in Yemen are driving people to transfer their foreign currency deposits abroad. There is no evidence that this is happening, as foreign currency deposits with local banks have been rising in March as well as in April.
Similar to all oil exporting countries in the world, Yemen has suffered from a sharp fall in world crude oil prices in 1998. Fiscal and monetary measures were taken to contain the damage by the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank of Yemen and other concerned authorities. Thank God, oil prices have recently started to rise and we believe that with the will of God, 1999 will be a better year than 1998.
The Central Bank of Yemen

As the end of negotiations between the Republic of Yemen and the Federal Republic of Germany, which took place in Bonn on May 5 and 6, 1999, it was agreed that Germany would commit an additional 45 million DM, appr. 3.8 billion YR, as grants within the framework of the Yemeni-German development cooperation. Out of this sum, 25 million DM (appr. 2,125 billion YR) will be allocated for financial cooperation for water supply and sanitation projects, implemented by the kreditanstalt fŸr Wiederaufbau (KfW) among others, in the towns of Bajil, Beit Al-Faqih, Ibb and Sa'adah. Furthermore, 20 million DM, appr. 1.7 billion YR, will be utilized for technical cooperation projects, for agriculture and health among other things, and, a new project, for the Central Organization for Control and Auditing (COCA).

The Yemeni delegation, headed by the Minister of Planning and Development, Mr. Ahmed M. Sufan, met with the German Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development, Ms. Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul on May 5. It is expected that she will visit Yemen in November of this year to mark the 30th anniversary of the resumption of diplomatic relations and of continuous cooperation between Yemen and Germany.

The total volume of financial and technical cooperation between Germany and Yemen from 1969 to date amounts to 784 million DM (appr. 66 billion YR) and to 450 million DM (appr. 38 billion YR) respectively.