Doing business in Yemen

Of all the countries in the Middle East Yemen may be facing the greatest challenges. They are running out of both oil and water. In addition there is a civil war being fought in the north part of the country. All of these are formidable challenges but for companies who are brave enough there is some potential for doing business in Yemen. It won't be easy certainly but there is money to be made by setting up shop in the country.

Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the Arab world and it is facing some serious problems. The biggest is that by far the largest part of the economy is oil production. In recent years production has been declining and the country is expected to run out of oil in the next ten years. When this happens there could be an economic disaster, there are few other industries in the country and given that they are already one of the poorest countries in the region losing their major industry would be devastating. There also a danger that the country will run out of water creating another serious problem.

Despite the difficulties that Yemen is facing it isn't all bad news. There is some potential to keep the country's economy afloat. Mainly this is due to the reserves of natural gas, this can go a long way to replacing the oil revenue if it can be brought into production. The other area of potential opportunity is that Aden is ideally located to be a major shipping center. Aden is an excellent natural harbour that is located very near to the major Asian and European shipping lanes. This could provide an excellent opportunity for the country if it can take advantage of the opportunity.

There are a great many challenges facing anybody who is looking at doing business in Yemen. Be sure to discuss them with a business agent before you start! The biggest is the security risk; Yemen is believed to be a major center of terrorist activity. There is also a civil war being fought in the north part of the country. This obviously poses serious risks for anybody trying to do business in Yemen and has really hampered their growth. Until these security risks are addressed finding companies willing to take on that risk is going to be a challenge.

There are a whole host of other problems that will have to be dealt with in order to do business in Yemen. There is an almost total lack of infrastructure which makes even the most basic business activities a challenge. There is also a near total lack of a skilled work force which will require that any skilled employees be imported from overseas. This will be a major challenge given the security issues. Add to all this the fact that there are some fairly restrictive laws which are arbitrarily applied and clearly doing business in Yemen is a major challenge.