SANAA, 19 July 2003 — Saudi Arabia has provided $50 million in assistance to Yemen as part of its aid program to help the country expand and develop technical education and vocational training.
Dr. Ali Mansour ibn Safah, Yemen’s Minister of Technical Education and Vocational Training, said his ministry has started setting up 35 technical and vocational institutes, including all technical specializations.
“A total of 19 institutes will be created within a bilateral cooperation agreement between Yemen and Saudi Arabia which granted a loan of $50 million from the Saudi Islamic Development Fund,” he said.
The remaining 16 institutes will be set up within the framework of the development plans of the ministry, he added.
The minister pointed out that the institutes would be evenly distributed across the country taking into account population density and social factors.
The decision to build these institutes, he said, comes in response to the increasing number of students who wish to study in this field. He said that the existing 46 technical institutes are able to accommodate only 50 percent of the applicants and their output is not enough to meet the requirements of the job market.
