What is your advice to investors who desire to invest in Aden?
Investors do not need advice more than the State’s serious procedures to provide proper an environment. We find that although there are difficult situations, there is a group of investors has preferred to invest in their country after they faced obstructions in the neighboring countries because of the war situation. Another group attempted to invest but it could not burden the suffering which forced them to invest in the neighboring countries such as Egypt, Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia.
What are the most significant regulatory and encouraging rules of investment in addition to the rules of Investment Law that the investor wants to change or include in the Yemeni investing environment?
This question in answered above. We can add that the General Investment Authority should be comprehensive regarding the offering of facilities in founding projects in addition to providing investment areas with proper infrastructure and security. It is impossible to found projects without proper sites.
What are the problems of procedures you have faced in founding your project?
We have not faced any problems in the procedures when we founded our project which proves that the General Investment Authority is interested in improving and easing difficulties. However, we have suffered in finding the site to found our project, in addition to weak services and infrastructure. The GIA does not provide sites to found projects; it is the investor’s task to find a proper site. Thus, we find a lot of investment projects are not working because they do not have sites with proper infrastructure.
Has the war affected your project, and have you overcame its effects and how?
Two of our projects, which offered more than (150) jobs, exposed to fire because of the bombing against the industrial area in the Aldorian during the 2015 war. To this day, we have not been compensated in spite that we submitted our proof of this claim. Moreover, one of the projects does not work because it was exposed to total destruction.
Metal Plats Production Factory
Project Owner: Saeed Nasser Ali Bahada
What is the nature of your project? What services do you provide?
Our project nature is producing different types of metal plates which are used in building different types of hangars such as factories hangars, warehouses hangars, central refrigerators, and farming poultry and livestock hangars.
What is the project located?
The project is located at the Aldorian, Almansourah District.
How many jobs are provided in the project?
The project is currently providing (15) jobs and we expect to double this number in case of expansion.
What is the estimated investing cost of the project?
The investing cost of the initial project is about (half a million US dollars) which can be increased in case of expansion.
Can you tell us about the facilities that are provided to you and by whom?
The only facilities that are provided to us are the procedures of the project foundation by the General Investment Authority- Aden which are related to the import of the project components, operating equipment, and raw materials.
What are the obstacles that the project has met?
We have suffered from obtaining a proper site to start the project and we had to find other alternatives because the State failed to provide sites allotted for investment due to the seizure of lands and random building in most areas of Aden Governorate.
How do you see the investment in Aden? Are there any potentials that the General Investment Authority to provide facilities to overcome obstacles that face investors?
We see that the situation of war and its consequences in damaging the infrastructure and the absence of the State in imposing regime and law application has led to delay and hinder the investment process in Aden Governorate.
What are your plans (developing/ expending your project or starting new projects)?
If there is proper environment, security, judiciary, taking interest in allotting investment sites and providing more facilities, we will develop, expend and establish new projects and joint economic blocs that serve the country.
What are your plans (developing/ expending your project or starting new projects)?
If there is proper environment, security, judiciary, taking interest in allotting investment sites and providing more facilities, we will develop, expend and establish new projects and joint economic blocs that serve the country.
Why did you choose to invest in this particular scope?
We work in iron for more than four decades. We worked in the neighboring countries then moved to invest in our country which is our main purpose.
In order to have a proper investment environment
the State has to:
Provide infrastructure services (electricity, roads and bridges, ports, water, sewage systems)
Security and judiciary: Any investor feels that he is blackmailed by outlaw persons who are prevailed and expended because the State is absent. They impose levy out of applicable laws. Further, the judiciary is not implemented and does not protect the investor.
The Government has a role in imposing the State’s sovereignty, taking suitable decisions that contribute in the economic development, and lifting restrictions by the Government’s laws e.g. reducing taxes and preventing double taxation, and improving the procedures in the ports.
Take interest in human resources since we have insufficient qualified and trained human resources in our country which increase loads on us as investors. To solve this, we should establish developed institutes and employ experts to train the staff.
As there is an economic development, laws to protect private ownership, honest security that imposes law power, taking interest in natural resources properly, in addition to other considerations that are mentioned above, the capital will race to invest.