An executive for Shaher Trading, a company owned by prominent Yemeni businessman Shaher Abdulhak Saleh, said the company is strongly studying the possibilities of increasing its investments in the Yemeni telecommunication sector within a year.

The new investment project could operate through a newly formed company, while not ruling out a partnership with MTN Yemen, a telecommunication giant in Yemen where Abdulhak holds the top executive position.
The project is expected to create thousands of job opportunities in Yemen and increase the number of internet users nationwide.

Tens of thousands of new Internet lines will be specified for rural area users, said Ali Farouk, a Ministry of Telecommunication official.
The ministry of telecommunication announced last month that it signed an international agreement that would increase Internet speed by more than 75 times by 2015. Speed of Internet in Yemen is the slowest in the region

There are only 2.5 million Internet users in Yemen according to government statistics, an estimated nine percent of the Yemeni population. The government expects the number of Internet users could increase if it becomes more available in rural areas.

Following the economic crisis that Yemen faced as apart of the Arab spring that led to the ouster of long time President Ali Saleh in 2012, the Yemeni government urged local businessmen to help the country stand on its feet by investing in different sectors of development.