SANA’A, Feb. 29 – The only way to guarantee that any donor-lead intervention succeeds in supporting Yemen’s economy is through donor countries establishing their own development institutions in Yemen, according to Prime Minister Mohammed Salem Baseundwah.

“This way we can avoid wasting time and money on projects. Doing it this way, the fate of the upcoming donor’s conference will be different from the 2006 conference in London,” the prime minister told Yemen Times.

Saudi Arabia has offered to co-host a new donors’ conference in Riyadh next month. The conference will deal with the pending issues resulting from the last conference in London along with new strategic development needs.

In its ministerial meeting on Tuesday, the cabinet approved the creation of an eight-member committee headed by Baseundwah himself to prepare for the Riyadh meeting.

Moreover, in his inauguration speech the newly elected president, Abd Rabo Mansour Hadi called on the international community on Monday to deliver their funding to Yemen pledged in 2006. Only 10 percent of the $ 4.8 billion committed by donors in 2006 was actually released. Donors explain that the money could not be delivered because of the lack of adequate planning on Yemen’s side, a statement that was confirmed more than once by Yemen’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Abu Bakr Al-Qirbi.

Already the kingdom of Saudi Arabia has provided Yemen with at least 500,000 tons of fuel in the last two months and promised to support Yemen with emergency fuel in the coming few months, as Yemen’s oil production, which contributes to around 70 percent of the GDP, has been decreased by half.