Doing Business In Yemen
Yemen is one of those countries in the Arabian Peninsula bordered by the Red Sea, Oman and Saudi Arabia. Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea and Ethiopia are the neighboring countries to Yemen. It is one of the only republican countries in the Arabian Peninsula with Sana'a as the capital. Yemen has a very rich civilization which can be traced back to the 6th century. The rule has passed through the hands of different dynasties before being a republic. Yemen is having the 49th largest land area in the world and is bigger than California. It is the region in the Arabian Peninsula receiving highest rainfall, but still the rivers here do not reach the sea as they get evaporated in between. The nights are very cold while the days are hot.
Unlike most of the countries in Arabia, the oil resource in Yemen is very small still the main source of revenue for the government of Yemen comes from oil. Yemen also has a very large and rich natural gas resource which if used effectively can help in increasing the revenue of the government to a great extent. Most of the foreign companies in Yemen are focused on the hydrocarbon industry. Since the oil resource of Yemen is very small it is supposed to get depleted by 2011 but the economy can withstand the economic collapse if effective utilization of the non oil sectors is carried out.
Many economic reform programs have been formed by the government of Yemen along with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to help the economic condition of the country be improved. These reform programs have been aimed at increasing the employment rate, strengthening the financial stability and also concentrating more on extracting revenue from the non oil sector. Yemen also has reformed many of its real estate laws. It is considered 43 among the 183 nations as the least restrictive countries for construction of building s. Laws have also been passed regarding helping even the non Yemenites to purchase property in Yemen and help in Construction. The new tax law even reduced the tax on business profit from 35% to 20%.
There are seven procedures for starting up a business establishment in Yemen. It takes about 13 days and approximately 93% of the GNI per capita. A specimen application has to be obtained from the Commercial Register and filled up accordingly. One needs to register at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and even with the general taxes for getting the taxation card and payment of income taxes. License for the business can be obtained from the Municipality; it must also be registered at the Chamber of Commerce. For making business in Yemen more attractive the government has reduced the rates of the registration fees of small and large companies. Small companies need not pay any registration fee but need to be registered if they plan to expand their business in future.
Government is also encouraging women to engage themselves in business and in Yemen there are a large number of women doing the same. This has helped a lot in raising the economic conditions as poverty and unemployment are more among the women. Government of Yemen along with the government of Dutch has is planning to computerize the business organization. This further simplifies the reform and business programs.
