MAY 27: Yemen now has 2,600 Internet subscribers out of a population of around 17.5 million. Muhammad Abd al-Qadr, marketing manager of TeleYemen, told Reuters the figure was increasing by only 120 to 140 subscribers a month. One unnamed official said the cost of computers and Internet subscriptions was considered too high, even for middle class people, in a country where the average monthly wage is $80-150. There are thought to be about 20,000 computers in Yemen - about 70% used by foreign companies, 20% by Yemeni government and private institutions, and 10% by individuals.

MAY 27: Unocal Corporation and Occidental Petroleum announced they would exchange assets in Yemen and Bangladesh. Occidental will take on Unocal's 28.57% stake in three producing fields in Yemen and Unocal will take Occidental's 50% working interest in three blocks in north-east Bangladesh. The three Yemeni fields, which produce about 15,000 bpd, are Kharir, Atuf Northwest and Wadi Taribah, all in eastern Shabwa.

MAY 19: Yemen increased domestic fuel prices as part of its economic reform programme. The rises affect kerosene, fuel oil and cooking gas but not petrol and diesel (a cause of riots when previous increases occurred). Kerosene is up 6.7% to 16 riyals a litre, fuel oil up 18.2% to 13 riyals a litre and domestic cooking gas up 2.5% to 205 riyals per cylinder.

MAY 19: President Salih said Yemen was negotiating for gas exports to four Asian countries - India, Taiwan, China and South Korea. Yemen sees gas as one of the keys to its economic future and aims to export almost 33 billion cubic metres of liquefied natural gas (worth about $33 billion) over the next 25 years.

MAY 13: Yemen said it will issue a tender later this year for a second mobile telephone service provider to run the Global System for Mobile Communications. Currently the only mobile phone operator in the country is Yemen International Telecoms (TeleYemen) which is 51% state-owned. The British Cable & Wireless company holds the remaining stake and operates the network. Yemen has about 20,000 mobile phone users.

MAY 11: Canadian Occidental Petroleum, which has extensive oil interests in Yemen, said its loss in the first three months of 1999 increased to C$46 million compared with C$4 million in the same period the previous year.

MAY 8: The Dutch government announced it was cutting off aid to 60 countries in order to target its overseas development budget more effectively. Yemen is among 18 that will still qualify.

MAY 2: The chairman of parliament's finance committee, Salih Qasim al-Juneid, accused the Finance Minister, Alawi Salih al-Salami, of poor fiscal management. Noting that the budget deficit totalled $127 million at the end of March, he told al-Ayyam newspaper: " The ministry of finance has made itself into the leading office of the government, encroaching on the prerogatives of the planning ministry, the central bank and all other ministries."

APRIL 28: The government introduced new austerity measures to cut state spending and continue the economic reforms. There will be a ban on the purchase of non-essential vehicles and equipment by government institutions. Spending on conferences and delegations sent abroad has been cut. Water and electricity use by government departments is to be rationed and there will be a strictly-enforced bidding system for contracts. [SABA]

APRIL 28: The cabinet discussed a letter from President Salih which called on "every government circle" to cut spending. It included the following points (SABA's translation):

• Stopping buying cars and all luxurious things.
• Stopping all credits and budgets arranged out of the general budget of the state.
• Stopping aids, assistance and grants given to under-serving people.
• Stopping aids and assistance given for treatment abroad except according medical reports endorsed by the higher medical committee and Ministry of Health.
• Limiting spending on holding symposiums and conferences and traveling abroad.
• Stopping spending on all forms of social complements.
• Making sure in realizing the highest degree of equity and justice in applying the social guarantee to deserved people.
• Severe compliance with the provision of the service law in military forces.
• Stopping promotion contrary to civil service law.
• Full compliance with the laws which regulate tenders and purchases.
• Putting a maximum limit for the blood money paid by the state as an assistance for poor people who have to pay it.

APRIL 28: Republican Decree No. 126 for 1999 established a National Committee for Atomic Energy. [SABA]

APRIL 20: The Kuwait-based Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development signed an agreement with Yemen for the loan worth 18 million Kuwaiti dinars ($59 million). The 25-year loan has an annual 4.5% interest rate and a grace period of four years. The money will be used to improve urban sanitation in Yemen. [QNA, Qatar]

APRIL 20: Parliament completed discussions with the government on the privatisation law. Some further discussion of postponed articles and a vote will take place in the next session. [SABA]

APRIL 17: Foreign Minister Abd al-Qadr Bajammal arrived in Tehran to discuss security issues and economic and trade co-operation with Iran.

APRIL 15: The army newspaper, "26 September" reported that Yemen has earmarked $250 million to more than double production at six oil fields in Shabwa. The fields are being developed by Total (France) and Hunt Oil (US). Output at the al-Nasr field should increase from 20,000 bpd to 60,000 in June, and total output from five other fields should increase from 40,000 to 85,000 by the end of the year. The goal is to raise national production from 400,000 bpd, although it hopes to raise this to 500,000 by 2000 from new production in the Shabwa and Jannah fields. Oil provides 85% of Yemen's revenues and amounted to $454 million in 1998.

APRIL 15: The IMF's annual review of Yemen's economy praised the government's response to the fall in oil prices in 1998 which cut export earnings by the equivalent of about 10% of GDP. However, the report expressed some concern about plans for a sharp increase in the civil service wage bill and the postponement of increases in diesel prices. It also urged Yemen to be more selective in its interventions in the currency market, "allowing market-determined exchange rate movements to support external adjustment, and limiting intervention to deal with genuine market volatility.''

APRIL 15: Yemen dispatched 40 tonnes of humanitarian aid for Kosovo refugees, including food, tents and blankets, the agency said. Earlier in April it sent 80 tonnes, including medicines. About $350,000 has also been sent. [SABA]

APRIL 13: Inder Sud, the World Bank's Middle East director, said the organisation would be able to commit as much as $700 million to Yemen in the next three years, compared with $420 million dollars in the previous three years [see April 8]. The money would be conditional on "good performance and adherence to the agreed priorities." Since 1995 the World Bank has lent Yemen $508 million dollars for 13 projects.

APRIL 9: Yemeni and Malaysian foreign ministers met in Sana'a and discussed co-operation in the oil and gas sectors, SABA news agency reported. Yemen's natural gas reserves are estimated at 14 trillion cubic feet. It has set up a joint venture with foreign firms to export 5.3 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) a year, but has not yet found an export market.

APRIL 8: Planning and Development Minister Ahmed Mohammad Sofan says Yemen is seeking to more than double its borrowing ceiling over the next four years (1999-2002) from $340 million to $876 million. The minister said the loans would be used for development, including improving infrastructure in Aden, female education, water and sewage projects and public health. He added that Yemen had implemented 81% projects financed by the International Development Agency (IDA), compared to 77% in other Middle Eastern countries.

APRIL 7: The Czech aircraft manufacturer, Aero Vodochody (35% owned by Boeing), announced that Yemen had signed a deal to buy 12 of its L-39C jet trainers. Yemen had earlier said it was intending to buy 12 Aero Vodochody L-159 light fighter aircraft this year, but the company said there were no concrete plans for that.

APRIL 5: Representatives of the Singapore Power company met electricity ministry officials to discuss plans for a 700-megawatt power station at Marib. The company is seeking to develop its activities abroad because it is about to lose its monopoly in Singapore. [Saba]

APRIL 3: The Czech Foreign Minister, Jan Kavan, ending a two-day visit to Yemen, said his country intends to invest in the Aden free zone, but gave no details. Saba news agency said the two governments had agreed a number of economic co-operation deals. According to Middle East Economic Digest, Yemen imported Czech goods worth $5.3 million last year and exported $400,000 of Yemeni goods to the Czech Republic.

APRIL 3: The President Jiang Zemin of China met the Yemeni vice-president, Abdo Rabo Mansour Hadi, in Beijing and called for the two countries' trade and economic relations to deepen.

MARCH 29: The number of investment applications for the Aden Free Zone had reached more than 272 by the end of 1998, Saba news agency reported.

Derhim Abdu Noaman, chairman of the free zone, said that the applicants - who included local, Arab and foreign investors - were interested in the investment process of the first phase of Aden Terminal Containers (ACT) and the industrial and storage zones.

Mr Noaman added that the estimated cost of local investment projects was YR10.9 billion ($75 million), while the total cost of Arab and Foreign applications was US $65.9 millions.

MARCH 29: Al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper reports that Yemen's foreign trade deficit was YR 112.4 billion ($800 million) in 1998 compared with a YR 63.3 billion ($450 million) surplus a year earlier.

MARCH 23: The International Monetary Fund approved loans and credits totalling $64 million to support Yemen's second annual programmes under the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility and Extended Fund Facility (see press release). The latest disbursements are part of a three-year loan and credit package totalling $506 million, which was approved on October 29, 1997.

MARCH 13: The Central Bank of Yemen raised the minimum interest rates on bank deposits to by two percentage points to 17%, in a move to prop up the falling value of the riyal. The governor of the Bank, Ahmed Abd al-Rahman Sawawi, also said that Yemen's 11 commercial banks had increased their assets by 18% to $1.4 billion last year.

MARCH 12: The oil ministry is holding talks with Agip of Italy and Rock Oil of Australia with a view to reaching a production sharing agreement on block two in Shabwa province, an official said. Agip has worked for several years in block three (also in Shabwa). The official added that negotations will also start shortly with Rock Oil regarding a production sharing agreement on block 42 in Shabwa. [Saba news agency]

MARCH 11: The Yemeni riyal fell to 152 to the dollar. Although declining gradually in value, the riyal had been relatively stable since 1995 (see chart) and had been around 140 for some time. According Reuters, the fall was attributed to the continuing low price of oil (on which Yemen depends for about 60% of its foreign earnings) and damage to tourism caused by recent kidnappings.

FEBRUARY 25: Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported that Yemen will reduce wheat subsidies, impose tax on fuel consumption, and increase charges for water, electricity, telecommunications and transport from April 1. According to Agence France Presse (24.2.99), soldiers and some state employees will get pay rises of 20% on the same day to protect them against the worst effects of the price rises. In June 1998 there were riots when prices on a range of basic goods were increased.

FEBRUARY 18: The army newspaper, 26 September, reported that the European Union has approved a $14 million aid package to develop Yemen's strategic food reserves. It also said the EU will give $5 million to the engineering faculty at Sana'a university.

FEBRUARY 17: The Ministry of Industry announced that Arab Contractors of Egypt has won a $50 million contract in Yemen to build grain silos and storage facilities for a privately owned food company near Hodeidah.

FEBRUARY 12: Yemen signed an agreement in Washington for a $50 million World Bank credit for labour-intensive public works. Another $50 million credit, which has been negotiated but still requires approval, will support policy reforms in a broad range of public sector management issues.

FEBRUARY 12: TransGlobe Energy Corporation announced that a Norwegian company, DNO ASA, will shortly start drilling the first appraisal well on the Tasour structure in Yemeni Block 32. TransGlobe has been encouraged by seismic tests, and a well in 1997 tested at 4,870 barrels of oil per day. Three new wells will be drilled in 1999. The Block 32 partners are: TransGlobe Energy Corporation, 9.81%; DNO ASA, 20%; Ansan Wikfs (Hadramaut) Limited, 45.19% and Norsk Hydro Yemen AS, 25%.

FEBRUARY 10: British Airways announced that its new service to Sana'a, which was planned to start in April, has been postponed "in the light of the kidnapping problems and a fall-off in travel". The airline had been hoping to operate two flights a week via Alexandria in Egypt, through its franchise partner, British Mediterranean Airways. It is now thought that the service may start in November. British Airways stopped its flights to Yemen in 1994.

FEBRUARY 3: The marketing manager of Yemenia, quoted in the Yemeni newspaper, al-Gumhuriyya, said the airline was expecting to lose $8 million in the three months to March because of kidnappings. The airline is currently operating only 25% of its normal flights to Europe, and has announced that it is cutting its London-Sana'a flights from two per week to one, as "a temporary measure". Earlier, a British newspaper report said that one recent Yemenia flight carried only four passengers.

FEBRUARY 3: Income from Yemen's oil exports was only $453.8 million in 1998, compared with $1.1 billion the previous year, the Oil Ministry announced.

JANUARY 31: Yemen met all its international debt obligations for 1998, the Central Bank announced. Saba news agency quoted the Governor, Ahmad al-Samawi, as saying: "The Central Bank in 1998 met all the payments ... It paid loans and interest on loans to countries we had rescheduled debts with and also paid international and regional institutions ... The total value of the loans and interest was $160 million for the year." Before 1997, Yemen's total foreign debt was $8.2 billion, including $6.7 billion owed to Russia. In 1997 the debts were restructured by the Paris Club of creditor nations, effectively reducing the burden by 67%, while Russia wrote off 80% of its debts.