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Monday, 27 January 2014

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GradingTheYemen
NDC
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NDC ENDS WITH SUCCESS;TIME FOR RESULTS

Surroundedby
all NDC representatives, President Abdo Rabbo
Mansour Hadi officially announced the closure of the NDC,
stressing that now that a consensus had
been reached, he would, as the Head ofState, strive to implement the people’s willon the ground as to finalize Yemen’s calls
for change and introduce a new institutional era.
Almost a year after its establishment, andfollowing much delays and roadblocks, NDC
representatives managed against all odds tofulfil their popular mandate by laying down
the principles upon which Yemen new constitutions will be constructed around.
And while challenges remain, President
Hadi said he believed Yemen will pull

By Arwa Al-Anesi
YEMEN POST STAFF

through and become a beacon of the ArabSpring movement, an example to be followed and emulated.
“We will now strive implement the outcomes [resolutions] of the dialogue with thesupport of the international community,”
noted President Hadi while addressing on
Saturday NDC representatives and otherstate and foreign dignitaries.
President Hadi stressed that the NDC’ success should act as a reminder that Yemen
can as a nation pull together and carve a
way for itself no matter the turmoil or difficulty.
The president who will remain in power for
another year as to overview the implementation of Yemen’s last power transfer chapter called on all Yemenis to stand by office
as all will attempt to transform Yemen intoa “modern civil state”.
Addressing the Yemeni nation through arecorded televised message, UN Secretary
General Bank Ki Moon congratulated thepeople of Yemen on their dazzling victory
over chaos, stressing that the people hadrightly chosen unity over division, consensus over chaos.
Washington stands by Sana’a throughthick and thin
As Yemenis came together on Saturday tocelebrate the successful conclusion of theNational Dialogue Conference, the UnitedStates of America, which has been instrumental in promoting dialogue over unrest
and territorial unity over fragmentation,
hailed the nation for such its historicalbreakthrough.
“The United States congratulates the peopleof Yemen on the conclusion of their National Dialogue,” State Department deputy
spokeswoman Marie Harf said at a press
conference on Saturday.
“The debates, discussions and compromises
throughout the National Dialogue process
are evidence of the will of the Yemeni people to work together constructively for thefuture of their country,” she added.
Cautious Harf warned that while Yemen
should revel in its political achievement,
she noted that the impoverished nation had
yet a long way to go to achieve its democratic dream. While the NDC laid out thegroundwork for the drafting of a new constitution and the move from a presidential
governance system to a federal one, Yemen
would have to carve its own way as it seeks
to implement change on the ground.
“While significant progress has been made,the work of Yemen’s democratic transition
is not complete,” Harf emphasized.
On a lighter note, Washington pledged its
support of Yemen as it embarks on a newchapter of its history, “The United States remains firmly committed to supporting theYemeni people and the government, under“Thedebates,discussions
and compromises
throughout theNational Dialogue
process are evidenceof the will of theYemeni people towork together constructively for thefuture of their country,” she added.
the leadership of President Hadi, as theywork to implement the National Dialogue
recommendations and subsequent stages ofthe transition process, including constitutional reform and national elections.”

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Yemen versus France:

President Hadi threatens
NDC
representa- TOTAL with international
tives
managed against all court over LNG prices
odds to fulfil their
popularmandate by laying
down the principles
upon which Yemen
new constitutions
will be constructedaround.

President Hadi’s remarks
just ahead of NDC final curtain callWith tension high between theHouthis and the tribes as fighting re-emerged in the province ofAmran, located directly north ofthe capital and a sudden surge inassassination, Yemen President
Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi calledon his countrymen to stand by
him as he wished to oppose such“forces of evil.”
Having inherited a fractured andalmost bankrupted nation (Yemen is the poorest and most restive nation in the Arabian Peninsula) President Hadi had from theonset an impossible task: mend
decades of mis-management,
nepotism, corruption and latentsectarianism as well as tribalism.
However, the man who for thegreatest part of his political career stood in the shadow of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh,
as his long-standing Vice President, President Hadi managed
in a short two years to introduce
Yemen to a different form of governance, one based on democratic
principles.
And while of course Yemen’s toward journey democracy remains difficult and attimes painful, changes of such magnitudeoften are.
Following years of living under an absolutepresidential system, Yemenis have only
began to comprehend dialogue and grasp
political pluralism; Yemen as a nation willneed to learn to find its way and define its
course in consensus not in despotism, abrand new concept of governance.
But if progresses have been promising, testament of Yemenis’ dedication to democracy, dangers are legion and pitfalls are aplenty. If anything the NDC could be remembered as the easiest and less turbulent
chapter of the country democratic transition. With all principles laid out in its bookof resolutions, Yemen politicians will have
now to implement change on the ground, atask many have said to be dreaded.
As many will confirm, if managing to get Yemenis to agree on anything is a mighty task,
the implementation of an agreement can beeven more challenging, as often parties will
have a different understanding of how what
they agreed upon should come to be.
As per noted by President Hadi, security
remains a dire issue, a threat to the nation.
The Yemen’s cycle of violence needs to beended if the nation is ever to pull throughas fear and distrust are not conductive togrowth and political stability, quite the opposite actually. Communities will only retract behind their walls, and Yemen democratic dream will wither in the shadows.

Faced with anaggravated economiccrisisanddangerously low foreign currencies reserve,President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi
first had to turn toward the oil sector totry to establish how best to maximize Yemen’s income revenues, when he took
power in 2012.
Since the oil andgas industry represents over 70% of
Yemen’s national
budget, it was only
natural for President Hadi to wantto how so far his
predecessor, former President Ali
Abdullah Saleh had
managed the country’s main source ofrevenues.
A closer look at Yemen
developing
LNG industry revealed that undercurrent
arrangements Yemen had
agreed to sell its
LNG at a significantly discounted
price: $3 per million British thermal units (Btu).
In a remark to thepress back December 2013, when
the coalition government looked into Yemen LNG dossier, prompted by expressions of outrage from the public over the perceived
squandering of public money, Shawki
Al-Mekhlafi, the deputy minister of Yemen’s Ministry of Oil and Minerals, emphasized that “agreements signed during the former regime deprived Yemenof full and fair compensation for LNG
sales.”
According to national data, Yemen has
sold its gas well beyond market prices,$9 below market price to below to beprecise. For the past decade Yemen has
systematically lost an average of $700
million per annum, which given the stateof Yemen’s finances seems rather odd.
As per the Oil Ministry record Yemen
signed with TOTAL, KOGAS and GDFSuez a 20 year agreement for the sale ofits gas at $3 per million Btu.
As Yemenis called on the coalition government to immediately look into thematter as to re-align Yemen with global
markets and secure the nation a fair return on its natural resources, France,
which has a majority interests in Yemen
LNG and represents both TOTAL andGDF-Suez, Yemen’s main LNG buyers,
has dragged its feet, keen on perpetuating Saleh’s arrangement over a price readjustment.
In December, Ahmed Dares, Yemen’s
Oil minister confirmed that following around of negotiations with KOGAS (Korean company) Yemen had modified its
sale agreement to match current market
level. Starting 2014, Kogas will buy Yemen LNG at a rate of $12.6 per million
Btu.
So far France remains undecided.
Earlier this January, Prime Minister

YEMEN POST STAFF

Mohammed Salem Basindwa discussedwith Chairman of the French energy
company TOTAL Christophe De Margerie future cooperation and collaboration in the industry. The PM notified deMargerie of KOGAS’ decision, statingthat TOTAL now faced two options: adiscounted rate of $12.6 per million Btu

or full market price at about $14 per million Btu.
As per noted by officials, Yemen cannot
afford to discount its natural resources
when millions of its people face unprecedented economic hardship.
Because TOTAL has so far declined torespond to Yemen’s offer, Prime Minister Basindwa warned that should anagreement fail to be brokered according
to the nation’s expectations; the government would take the matter to the international court and debate there the matter of Yemen-France’s LNG agreement.
Since it has been rumoured that TOTAL
heavily bribed former regime’s government officials to secure such discounted
prices, a simple matter of contractual
price change could turn into a corruption case with great ramifications.
While former President Saleh has alwaysdenied wrongdoings, officials at the Oil
ministry noted that despite many requests, Saleh had fail to ever explain why
he voluntarily chose to discount Yemen’s
LNG resources when he could have easily secure the nation an income of $1 billion per year instead of $300 million peryear.
Since 2005, when former President
Saleh signed the LNG agreement withTOTAL, KOGAS and GDF-Suez, Yemen
has lost an estimated $5.6 billion of unrealised income. When considering Yemen’s current national deficit stands at$3.2 billion, one can easily understandwhy so many Yemenis feel deeply uneasy
about the situation, especially since theimpoverished nation has been put in asituation where it had to bed the international community to pledge funds tofinance its economic recovery.