The General Investment Authority held a meeting with the investor, brother Ali Abdo Ghaithan, owner of the Lotus Tourist Resort – Khormaksar – Al-Corniche, in the context of highlighting the successful tourism projects licensed by the Authority. Some questions were directed to him, which he answered….
Q9/ What are your future plans (developing/expanding your project/starting new projects)?
A/ Our plans are to add five floors to become a hotel and a hospital and to build a large hall for Aden, which is dear to our hearts.
Q10/ Why did you choose to invest in this field in particular?
A/ Our choice of this field is to stimulate tourism and attract many tourists locally and abroad, because Aden is an expensive and attractive city and a fertile land for all investments.
Q11/ How do your customers view your project? And what is the success rate of this project?
A/ My customers view this project with satisfaction and comfort, cheap prices and distinguished services, in terms of the various service facilities provided to them..
Noting that the success rate of this project is about 85%.
Q12/ Do you have a clear plan to advertise and promote your project?
A/ Yes, we have an annual promotional plan to advertise and promote our project, through social media, and we have integrated programs in this field.
Q13/ What do you advise investors who want to invest in Aden?
A/ I advise investors to invest in Aden Governorate in all fields, whether large, medium or small projects, because Aden is a large and beautiful city, and investment in it has become successful, in addition to the support of the competent authorities for investors for various projects, and this is what we have actually seen in terms of interest and cooperation from the General Investment Authority.. with our confirmation that success is guaranteed in light of the stability of the situation in the country with the selection of projects with economic feasibility.
Q14/ What are the most important provisions regulating and encouraging investment other than the provisions of the Investment Law that the investor wishes to change or introduce into the investment legislative environment?
A/ The most important provisions regulating and encouraging investment is that another investment law is issued under the banner of all government departments, through what is called the single window that must be activated and under the responsibility of the General Investment Authority.
Interview with Ali Ghaithan
Q1/ What is the nature of your project’s activity and what kind of services does it provide?
A/ The nature of the activity is a hotel/tourist resort called Lotus Tourist Resort located in Khormaksar District. The type of services provided by the hotel is/accommodating guests coming for domestic and foreign tourism. It also has wedding halls, wedding and funeral halls, and meeting rooms equipped with everything these meetings need from loudspeakers, air conditioners, appropriate lighting, and everything necessary in all aspects that lead to the success of these meetings and seminars.
Q2/ Where is the project located?
A/ The project (Lotus Hotel) is located in Khormaksar District – Qahtan Popular Corniche, opposite the gate of the presidency of Aden University, and overlooks the sea directly, which made it distinguished by a beautiful and picturesque location.
Q3/ How many job opportunities does the project provide?
A/ The project provides about fifteen job opportunities in addition to daily wage workers.
Q4/ What is the total estimated cost of the project?
A/ The estimated cost of the project is about eight million US dollars.
Q5/ Talk about the facilities that were provided to you and from which party?
A/ In fact, the facilities that were provided to us were from the General Investment Authority – Aden and no one else, which is exempting us from furniture customs and tax only.
Q6/ What are the difficulties that your project faced?
A/ The difficulties that we face are the high cost of electricity and its unavailability, the scarcity of water, the lack of sewage or asphalt for the roads surrounding the project, and the lack of lighting around the project and the coast of Abyan in general.
Q7/ How do you view investment in Aden? And what is the possibility of the Investment Authority providing more facilities to overcome the difficulties facing investors?
A/ Aden, the charming and beautiful city and the bride of cities, is still virgin and still needs in all areas, and this requires more support from the General Investment Authority and the local authority and focus and attention on encouraging local and foreign investment.
Q8/ What are the procedures required to improve investment services and environment and protect the rights of investors?
A/ First, there must be a suitable and appropriate ground for services (integrated infrastructure) in addition to media promotion in the media (visual, audio and print) with our proposal to invite investors to meet with them every six months (semi-annually) with the participation of the Chamber of Commerce and relevant parties, in order to present the opinions, suggestions and problems of investors in all fields, so that it is an integrated link for the advancement of the city of Aden and returning it to its previous era with its reputation and status, and even more beautiful than that past and beautiful time, because Aden is the city of peace and is dear to our hearts and the heart of every Yemeni. We also hope that the General Investment Authority will work on preparing models or drawings for several projects so that the investor can choose the project that suits him, while finding and choosing the location he desires.
Q15/ What are the procedural problems that you faced in establishing your project?
A/ There are no problems.
Q16/ Did the war affect your project? Were you able to overcome its impact, and how?
A/ Yes, the war affected our investment project and it was exposed to destruction and looting in addition to the destruction of the hotel from the inside and outside, including decorations – external stone (marble) – windows – doors – glass – plumbing – electricity – tiles in the rooms – furniture – air conditioners – generator – electrical – technical devices … and the project was suspended for three years because of that.
Q17/ Did you receive any compensation after the war?
A/ There is a special committee for compensation for hotels that came down and approved in its report to compensate us for these losses, but until now we have not received anything in return for the huge losses and damages that have drained most of the hotel’s contents, and the committee did not fulfill what we did .. except for indicating that we were compensated for furniture only.
Note that the compensation committee for hotels visited the project more than once and approved compensation for furniture only … As for the damage to the building from plumbing, marble, decorations, etc., they informed us that another committee specializing in building damages had come down … but unfortunately the committee did not come and we did not find any compensation.
There is no compensation yet, and we have not received any amount from any party as compensation for us, except for the work of the committees that are active in preparing reports.