I think the mercantile heritage and migration have fostered this character. Therefore, modern development and modern means of production are readily accepted and quickly learned and adopted. I hope that those of you who have dealt with rural development in Yemen would agree. Nevertheless, one can't easily dismiss the constraints that these traditional aspects put on economic development. It is clear that religious values and tribalism have affected the role of women.
Women are the most deprived group in our society.
However, my general conclusion is that traditionalism has not really been a serious barrier to economic development. Now, let me go to the second topic of this important symposium, namely democracy. Yemen is a country committed to democracy and is undergoing a democratization process, i.e. it is a nascent democracy. This commitment to democracy was a very important catalyst in realizing Yemen's unity. It was also a unifying factor in fighting the secessionist effort of 1994.