SANAA - An international donors meeting will be held next month in Riyadh to raise aid for Yemen, an impoverished nation grappling with a political transition, a minister said Thursday.
"The ministry is now working on completing the documents for the Yemen donors' conference to be held in Riyadh on September 4 and 5," Yemeni defence ministry news website 26sep.net quoted the country's Planning and International Cooperation Minister Mohammed al-Saadi, as saying.
"The documents include an emergency plan and a study on the investments needed."
According to Saadi, the first day of the conference will be devoted to donations from governments and international organisations and the second day for NGOs and the private sector.
The conference will "announce the financial pledges to support the national unity government's efforts in the coming period to mitigate the effects of the events that took place in Yemen, revive economy and development, and fight poverty and unemployment," Saadi said.
Yemen is undergoing a political transition after a year-long uprising unseated veteran leader Ali Abdullah Saleh and left the economy of the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country in shambles.
In May, wealthy Saudi Arabia pledged $4 billion (3.2 billion euros) in aid for Yemen during the Friends of Yemen meeting in Riyadh.
Saadi had previously said his country needs about $10 billion in urgent aid.
So far only 43 percent of $455 million earlier asked for by the UN and other organisations has been received for humanitarian aid for Yemen.
The Friends of Yemen forum was set up at an international conference in London in January 2010 to help Sanaa combat a resurgent threat from Al-Qaeda in the ancestral homeland of its slain leader, Osama bin Laden, as well as other security challenges.
