SANAA, 14 Dec -- A statement at the end of a 2-day economic conference held in the capital to identify Yemen’s economic priorities Monday said “development and the economy are Yemen’s greatest challenges,” adding “security lax and corruption are the two most difficult obstacles in the way of political and development progress.”  The statement identified Yemen’s economic priorities as electricity, unemployment, the tax system, tourism, and investment, and called on political parties to pay sufficient attention to economic and development issues in their programs.  It also urged the government to spread awareness in the media about economic priorities and called on the civil society organizations to mobilize public support for economic and development issues and emphasized “it is essential for the private sector to participate in national dialogues.”

SANAA, 12 Dec -- Members of the opposition in the Parliament Saturday boycotted the assembly’s session to voice protest of the state-commissioned partial legislative elections held earlier this month.  Deputy Chairman of the Islamists bloc in the Parliament Abdul-Razaq Hajri said “the opposition alliance, the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) will hold an urgent meeting Saturday night to draw up its final stand from the illegitimate partial elections.”  In a news statement, the opposition blocs in the Parliament voiced rejection of the partial elections, and doubted their results saying “what happened was a coup on the February 2009 agreement signed with the ruling General People’s Congress (GPC).”  It accused the ruling party of “breaching the February treaty,” adding “the partial legislative elections were run by an illegitimate committee,” in reference to the Supreme Commission for Elections and Referenda (SCER). The statement warned “the regime is dragging the country into a catastrophe,” and called on the GPC to “comply with the February agreement.”  Meanwhile, the opposition national committee of dialogue Saturday announced the setup of sub-committees “tasked with talking to political powers especially in volatile areas in Sadaa and south Yemen.”