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WASHINGTON, May 01 (Saba) – Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Abdul Karim al-Arhabi met last Friday on the sideline of his current visit to Washington with the U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs Robert Hormats.

During the meeting, the two sides discussed areas of joint cooperation between the two friendly countries in the economic and developmental fields and means of boosting them, as well as the steps taken by Yemen to improve the investment environment and attract the Arab and foreign capitals.

They also reviewed the level of implementation of reforms package in Yemen and Yemen's relationship with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB).

In the meeting, the U.S. official congratulated al-Arhabi on the occasion of receiving the WB 2010 Jit Gill Memorial Award for Outstanding Public Service, affirming his country's keenness to support Yemen in the framework of the international financial institutions.

For his part, al-Arhabi reviewed the successes achieved by Yemen within the national agenda of reforms, particularly with regard to areas of combating financial and administrative corruption and reforming procurement and tenders systems and judicial reforms, as well as Yemen's accession to the Transparency Initiative in oil and gas industries.

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Saba