Much ado about nothing: Frequent foreign presidential visits... and an economic reality teetering on the brink

Amid escalating economic hardship and mounting financial and service challenges that have burdened the state and society, President of the Presidential Leadership Council Rashad al-Alimi left the interim capital, Aden, for Riyadh on an official visit aimed at mobilizing support to address economic challenges and discussing local developments with regional and international actors, according to a statement issued by the Saba News Agency about the visit.

This new visit comes in the context of a long series of visits, repeatedly announced over the past two years for the same purpose: economic support, alleviating human suffering, restoring the state, and restoring stability. However, as with each visit, the results remain zero in terms of economic and living conditions. Indeed, each visit appears to be paving the way for further deterioration, not the opposite.

The problem no longer lies in the support itself, but rather in the way this vital issue is being managed. This is reduced to addressing external concerns and waiting for the aid or pledges offered by regional and international capitals, which quickly evaporate or erode into undisclosed details.

This is not the first visit justified by the same motive: confronting the economic and financial challenges resulting from the halt in oil exports due to Houthi attacks. In fact, this rhetoric has become so repetitive that it has lost both its political and economic impact. With each foreign trip, the government returns with optimistic rhetoric and reassuring statements, only for citizens to once again encounter a worsening reality, a more precarious standard of living, more exorbitant prices, and diminishing services.

The president's visit to Saudi Arabia to mobilize economic support is nothing more than a repetitive speech, having lost its political and economic impact... With every foreign tour, the government returns with optimistic speeches and reassuring statements, only for the citizen to once again encounter a worse reality, a more fragile standard of living, more insane prices, and services that are on the verge of disappearing .

Oil shutdown and government deficit

The halt in oil exports for the third consecutive year, as a result of Houthi attacks targeting vital infrastructure and facilities, represents the core cause of the current financing crisis. However, the real dilemma lies in the government's inability to find strategic alternatives, or even manage the crisis in a way that maintains a minimal level of economic stability. No economy in the world can withstand the interruption of its main source of funding without an emergency plan, rationalization of spending, restructuring of resources, and a genuine confrontation of institutional gaps and structural corruption.

What happened, and is happening, is the exact opposite: contentment with statements, seasonal diplomatic moves, temporary patchwork solutions that soon erode under the pressure of accumulating needs, and a blatant inability to deal with the crisis as a complex one that requires a radical reform process, not just waiting for those coming from abroad to save what can be saved..!!

The situation has reached catastrophic levels, allowing no further wasted time. Salaries are suspended in most sectors, inflation is rising, and the local currency continues to collapse against the dollar, amid a complete loss of confidence in the government's ability to control the market or provide even the most basic needs. Foreign reserves are declining, and food and medicine stocks in government-controlled areas face major import challenges. Not to mention the halting of development projects and the erosion of infrastructure, which has not seen maintenance for years...

What's frightening is that all of this is taking place under a government that lacks sustainable sovereign resources and relies almost entirely on grants and aid, which have become conditional and limited, or on Gulf deposits that are limited to covering basic imports without any impact on the Yemeni street.

(( There is no economy in the world that can withstand the interruption of its main source of funding without an emergency plan, without rationalizing spending, without restructuring resources, and without truly confronting the institutional gaps and structural corruption... while the situation has reached catastrophic levels that do not allow for more wasted time.. ))

Serious action and alternative solutions

Economic rescue does not come from abroad as much as it begins from within. What is required is not a new visit or another diplomatic statement, but rather serious action to radically address the root cause of the crisis: the halt in oil exports. If the government is unable to secure oil facilities or resume exports from the eastern fields, it must consider alternative and urgent solutions that restore some of the state's financial capacity.

For example, a number of solutions can be considered, including: -

• Investing surpluses in outlets;
• Re-prioritizing public spending;
• Review derivatives supply agreements;
• Combating corruption in the customs and tax sectors, and activating oversight tools for public expenditures;
• There should also be a focus on improving local achievement;
• Reducing unnecessary operating expenses and rationalizing political administrative employment;
• Activating the role of the Central Bank beyond its formal role in supervising the banking market.

On the other hand, we must move from begging for external support to building genuine investment partnerships with the region, based on mutual interests rather than temporary promises. The diplomatic and even military front must be mobilized to pressure the resumption of oil exports as a sovereign right of the state that may not be confiscated by force of arms. This must be done in parallel with the completion of reforms in the financial and monetary sectors, the unification of revenues, and the achievement of transparency in the management of grants and aid.

Yemen today is at a dangerous crossroads, and it is no longer worthwhile for the government to continue justifying its inability and stagnation with pretexts such as the blockade, the Houthi aggression, or the humanitarian situation. The interior has been exhausted, trust has eroded, and any delay in adopting a sustainable solution could lead to a total collapse that would irreversibly end the concept of the state and its institutions.

Reality dictates that the political leadership move beyond theoretical reassurances and protocol, and immediately move toward managing the crisis with a state mindset, not the logic of foreign trips. History is unforgiving, the street doesn't forget, and the economy doesn't wait.

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* Yemeni researcher and economic analyst