Farea Al-Muslimi writes: If Yemenis want to save whatever and whomever remains in Yemen, they must adopt a new political and economic equation — a kind of Yemeni Noah’s Ark — leading to an intelligent, technical and economic Marshall Plan extending to 2025, during which time a state could be built. The plan should be similar to the one adopted for Germany after World War II in being an intelligent, nontraditional mechanism that intersects but remains unrelated to the plans of state institutions. In other words, it should employ permanent components, not piecemeal, expedient measures and committees.
A workable plan would embody a unified and genuine will to instill stability in Yemen and restore the conflict there to the previously espoused mechanism, which was based on fair political and economic competition as well as shared interests without the threat of force. That Yemen is wracked by great institutional and social destitution actually facilitates the adoption of state-building projects, as societies and institutions are less resistant to change in desperate times. A sustainable peace plan for Yemen cannot succeed, however, without the adoption of an economic and developmental Marshall Plan capable of enduring irrespective of the faction in power while remaining largely unaffected by the prevailing security conditions.
Yemen faces many challenges related to economic development, but it also has great potential. For example, why not transform the beautiful island of Socotra into a world-class international maritime trade route stop and tourist destination? It is far removed from the events in the rest of Yemen and would give the entire country a glimmer of hope of things to come when peace prevails. Why can’t Socotra become another Hong Kong or Hawaii? It possesses all the elements to transform it into a maritime or tourist attraction, with its location and unique, pristine environment. Knowing that Aden’s ports competed with Liverpool’s and New York’s in the 1950s, why not transform Aden into another Dubai or Singapore?
