The Ministers of Industry and Health inaugurate the process of registering import traders through the port of Hodeida

 

The Minister of Industry and Trade, Abdul-Wahhab Yahya Al-Durra, Public Health and Population, Dr. Taha Al-Mutawakil, inaugurated today at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the Amanat Al-Asimah the process of registering import traders through the port of Hodeida.

The Minister of Industry affirmed the government’s readiness to provide facilities to the private and commercial sector in all governorates to import through the port of Hodeida.

He touched on the facilities announced by the Supreme Political Council and the Salvation Government for importers through the port, represented in suspending 49 percent of the customs tariff, calculating the customs dollar at an amount of 250 riyals, and directing the concerned authorities and agencies to overcome difficulties for importing traders.

He pointed to the advantages possessed by the Hodeida port in terms of the availability of modern laboratories to examine goods, the volume of daily container handling, and the speed of customs clearance procedures, in addition to reducing the volume of transportation expenses compared to the current high transportation cost from other ports.

Minister Al-Durra explained the results of the meetings with the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen, William Grisley, and explained the negative repercussions of the Aden Customs decision to raise customs duties, and its catastrophic effects on the citizen’s livelihood, and its damage to the national economy, and the internal trade movement.

He called on all traders to take advantage of the facilities to import through the port of Hodeida, which would ease the burdens on the citizen, stressing the port’s readiness to receive cargo ships and containers loaded with food and medicine, and to provide all facilities by the Yemeni Red Sea Ports Corporation and the Standards and Metrology Authority.

He valued the cooperation of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the Capital Secretariat Chamber, and all the chambers in the governorates, and their cooperation with the efforts of the state and the government, and its rejection of the decision to raise the customs tariff on importers of goods through the port of Aden.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Public Health and Population pointed to the importance of the cooperation of traders and importers in positively dealing with imports through the port of Hodeida, given the advantages that it would entail for the benefit of the citizen and the merchant.

He pointed to the importance of the strategic Hodeida port for the commercial movement, and the speed of transporting goods in a faster time and at lower costs… stressing that the Ministry of Health is ready to provide any facilities for traders importing medicines and pharmaceutical production inputs.

Minister Al-Mutawakel stressed the importance of the international community taking responsibility, including the United Nations and the European Union, in stopping the obstacles imposed by the coalition of aggression on the various imports and goods arriving at the port of Hodeida, especially with regard to medicine, fuel and food.

In turn, the Deputy Minister of Industry, Muhammad Ahmed Al-Hashemi, stressed the need for coordination between the Chamber, shipping companies and government agencies, providing facilities and removing obstacles in front of international shipping companies.

He pointed to the results of his visit to Hodeida Governorate, to see the necessary equipment, and to coordinate with the governorate’s leadership and the Ports Corporation and the Chambers of Commerce and Navigation.. Noting in this regard that a mechanism was adopted to alleviate the suffering of traders and importers to complete the procedures within three hours, after it took several days, in addition to reductions of up to 50 percent of the service fee.

Al-Hashemi praised the role of the private sector and the state’s efforts to alleviate the suffering of the citizen, especially in light of the economic war that the aggression and its mercenaries are creating.. He praised the national private, commercial and industrial sector’s refusal to raise the customs tariff, not to deal with it, and its willingness to import through the port of Hodeida.

For his part, the head of the Customs Authority, Youssef Zabara, reiterated that the authority will work to provide the advantages directed by the Supreme Political Council and the government… calling on the economic and commercial sectors and importers to take advantage of these advantages and register for import through the port.

He touched on the authority’s efforts to overcome any obstacles facing traders at all customs outlets.

In turn, the Director of the Authority for Standardization, Metrology and Quality Control, Dr. Ibrahim Al-Moayad, reviewed the facilities and advantages that the authority will grant to importers through the port of Hodeida.

He pointed out that an integrated laboratory of the latest laboratories at the level of Yemen and the Middle East has been equipped to examine food inside the port, indicating that the devices are characterized by high efficiency in terms of reducing the time period for conducting examinations and the appearance of examination results, compared to what was previously done.

Head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the Capital Municipality, Hassan al-Kbous, explained that merchants today are recording an important position in favor of the national economy and the Yemeni private sector, and this is represented in stimulating importing companies to reach the port of Hodeida for containers and goods.

He said, “We in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the Secretariat decided, with the support of the Salvation Government, to work by all means to enable the private sector to import through the port of Hodeida, which will positively affect the prices of goods for the benefit of consumers.”

And he touched on the burdens borne by the private sector as a result of preventing container shipments from the port of Hodeida, represented by the increase in container transport fees from the port of Aden to Sana’a to more than three thousand dollars, and the high cost of customs duties and tax officially imposed in the port of Aden after the decision of Aden Customs to double the price of the customs dollar by 100 percent. In addition to the distance of about 1,327 kilometers and other obstacles.

During the inauguration, a committee of shipping companies, the Chamber of Commerce and major importing companies was formed to search for an appropriate mechanism through which commercial companies can ship their containers through a shipping line to the port of Hodeida, in appropriate and unobstructed ways