Investment In The Future Development Of Yemen

investment in the future development of Yemen The Center of business Administration for post-graduate studies (CBA ) at Sana'a University, with the help of the Dutch Government through Nuffic as one of the NPT projects in association with Maastricht School of Management (MsM) as a northern partner, has been able during the past period to offer an executive master program in business administration in accordance with the highest and most state of the art levels available in the world in terms of modern curricula, innovative teaching methods, highly experienced staff (local & international), and modern pedagogic facilities. The program targets the higher and middle leaderships in the private sector as well as leaderships in companies, governmental institutions and NGOs. During the past two years, the project has been able to attract 90 students that fall in the following categories: 55% from the private sector companies, 42% public sector companies, and 3% civil society organizations. It is worth mentioning that 15.5% of them are females and that their numbers are increasing in every intake. Currently there are three programs going on, the first of them will graduate in the beginning of 2009. Checking the administrative positions of most students, we find that most of them fall in the decision making circle in their organizations and can make major changes in the structure of works. This is most noticeable in the private sector which is more flexible and respondent to change. With the knowledge and new skills they have gained from the program, a number of private sector companies' managers have made essential changes in their companies and now are sending their employees to join the program. A typical example of this is the biggest distributor of fast moving

consumer goods in Yemen, whose executive manager joined intake-01 and later on, he sent five other managers. This is considered a radical change in the culture of Yemeni business community. In addition, most of the managers who have joined the program belong to critical sectors that are very important to Yemen's economy (oil & energy, telecommunications, public services, banks, airlines, and the authorities of tax, auditing and statistics, and international projects that develop education, civil service and health). They are expected to make essential changes in those institutions towards good governance. We consider 'companies governance' as the main tool to develop companies and push the wheel of development towards a more democratic market through the increase of value to its highest level on the long term by the improvement of decision making and performance (good governance) in all companies even the smallest ones. we know that the most important principles in companies governance are the protection of shareholders, the ethics and behaviors of dealing with employees, shareholders and society, the encouragement of financial declaration and transparency in decision making, enhancement of competition capability, motivation of productivity and innovation, enhancement of competency, enhancement of transparency in the relation between the business sector and the state, the establishment of boards of chairmen that are able to adopt effective strategies, risk management, ensure that members of the board of chairmen and managers qualified and work for the interest of the company, in addition to the separation between ownership and administration, only then we will be able to realize the importance of the role being played by the CBA in this regard because the knowledge and various skills given to students at the CBA mainly focus theoretically and practically on

these principles and encourage students to apply them by directing all researches and empirical studies towards them. The government's speeches and reports of international organizations indicate that there is an aggravation in the social and economical challenges that face the Yemeni society, and that there is a strong bet on the role that can be played by the private sector along with the essential public sector institutions to face such challenges, in addition to the action that must be taken to qualify the Yemeni economy to meet the requirements of joining the World Trade Organization and the GCC. Companies governance is also considered one of the requirements of a good environment to establish a stock market in Yemen and one of the steps that must be taken in the near future. However, the inconsistency between education and training outputs and the missions and needs of the private sector and the important institutions of the public sector make the educational, training and consultative services provided by the CBA of high strategic importance that fill the gap between the educational outputs and the needs of the market and society. Furthermore, the availability of visiting professors from (the USA, the UK, Holland, Switzerland and Belgium) on periodical bases has greatly helped to benefit from the most modern theories and good management practices in the world to adapt them to the Yemeni environment. Therefore, the concentration on the services provided by the Center - providing adequate funding, support and making it as the founding block that we can build on for any future programs by sponsors which target this important sector, is considered an important and substantial investment in the future development of Yemen.

Dr.Ahmed A. Bin-Mubarak Director of The Center of Business Administration for Graduate Studies Sana'a University E-mail:[email protected] Tel. 009671-472601 Mobile 00967-733870309