The participants in the private sector’s consultative meeting in Hodeidah recommended establishing a coordination council comprising the chamber of commerce, businessmen and civil society organizations to enhance the role of the private sector in resuming economic activity and improving relief and humanitarian aids.
In the meeting held in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Hodeidah and Economic Reforms Team, the governor of Hodeidah, Hassan Al-Haij confirmed on the social and humanitarian role of the private sector in the governorate, which is witnessing the highest rates of poverty and need, especially in this difficult period lived by the country.
He stressed in his speech the need to establish a joint operations room comprising the Chamber of Commerce, the private sector and civil society organizations and to study the governorate’s priorities in the coming period.
In the meeting, Mohammed Al-Hattami, Director General of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Hodeidah reviewed the humanitarian roles of the private sector and demanded more efforts and focus on the most war-affected regions and groups in the country.
Dr. Mohammed Hemna, a member of the Private Sector Advocacy Team, presented the war effects survey results on the private sector and discussed several success stories of the private sector in the governorate in humanitarian and relief aspects.
The participants discussed the mechanisms of boosting the relief and humanitarian aid and the reasons that represent a real obstacle to the exerted efforts and of recording future visions and useful ideas through which the real partnership of relief and humanitarian aid can be strengthened between the private sector and civil society organizations in the governorate.
The participants also discussed the challenges faced by the private sector, the most prominent of which were the additional fees on goods coming from Aden port at the entrances of Hodeidah, the weak purchasing power of the citizens due to not paying salaries and dismissing many of them from their work, the difficulty of financial and banking transactions, currency fluctuations and the cash crisis.
This meeting comes udder a series of meetings held by the Center in the governorates of Hadramout and Aden to discuss the challenges faced by the private sector and the priorities of the coming period, in order to come out with a vision for the private sector in the coming period.