The relationship between Yemen and donors has been affected by the latest developments especially the Houthi Militant Group's takeover of the capital city of Sanaa, a Yemeni official told the Alhayat Newspaper.
Amat Al-Alim Al-Sosowa, director of the executive bureau for support of acceleration of aid absorption and policy reforms, said the Yemeni government will clarify to donors and friends its attitude toward the latest developments in order to restore a better relationship with them.
"Donors have the right to be worried about how their aid will be used because aid is given from public funds in donor countries. However, they should not suspend or set tough conditions for Yemen support because of political developments," she said. "Developmental consequences could be worse than politics then," she added.
Al-Sosowa's remarks came days after reports said Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had rejected efforts to resume aid to Yemen.
The two GCC countries suspended their aid after the Houthi takeover. Recent reports said they reject to resume their aid because they don't want aid to go to Iran-backed Houthi militants.
In the past few years, donors and friends pledged around $10 billion as part of their support to Yemen during the transition period. Only a small part of the aid has been already given amid reports the local authorities have not demonstrated ability to use all funds efficiently. The sum included $3.250 billion in Saudi aid. Saudi Arabia also deposited around one more billion US dollars in the Central Bank of Yemen to help stabilize the national currency.
"In terms of stability, it is easy to understand that what seem to be political problems are mostly motivated by poverty and unemployment which means suspension or postponement of aid deepens problems not resolve them," she said.
Al-Sosowa also revealed that the government is preparing studies on alternatives for the declining oil revenues to face the impacts of the falling global prices of oil.
She said the falling oil prices represented a key challenge for Yemen's economy which largely depends on the oil industry.
"The government is working on key reform policies including austerity, fighting ghost employment, developing non-oil sectors and improving the investment climate". But Yemen can't do that alone; support from other countries especially GCC neighbors is very important," she said.
Oil revenues account for 70% of the budget resources.
In recent years, the oil revenues have dropped sharply because of declining production and repeated attacks on oil infrastructure.
By November 2014, the oil exports fell by 7.2 million barrels which in turn led to the fall of the revenues by $892 million.
The production drop also forced the country to import fuels for around $2 billion.
The fuel import bill was payed from the country's foreign currency reserves. As a result, the currency reserves fell from $5.1 billion in September to $4.6 billion in November; the spent sum went to fuel imports, according to the Central Bank.