(MENAFN- Jordan News Agency) Labor Minister Nidal Qatamin said that the political situation in Arab countries, especially those that witnessed the so-called Arab Spring and which caused the economic recession, reflected negatively on job opportunities.
In remarks at the Conference "Arab Youth Employment: Promoting innovative solutions to longstanding challenges" that opened in Amman today, the minister called for finding drastic solutions to the unemployment problem in the Arab world, pointing to the absence of an Arab integration that provides job opportunities for the youth.
"The unemployment rate in the Arab world is alarming due to the unjust distribution of development gains and the lack of employment opportunities," he said, noting that the public sector does not have employment opportunities and that job opportunities in the modern age are linked to the private sector.
Qatamin said that the various waves of migration that the country has had to deal with since its establishment, starting with the Palestinians, Iraqis and most recently the influx of Syrian refugees, are unprecedented.
He pointed to the presence of 1.5 million Syrians in Jordan and stressed the importance of stimulating investments in regions far from the capital to create genuine job opportunities for the youth.
President and CEO of the International Youth Foundation William S. Reese said the conference aims to discuss the best practices to provide Arab youth with training and enable them to face the rising rate of unemployment.
He stressed the need for concerted efforts and expertise to help the youth in building and developing their communities and countries.
The three-day conference, organized by Silatech, aims to bridge the evidence gap on youth employment and create space for partnerships to form, scale up, and replicate successful initiatives.
The conference is being held at a time when the unemployment rate in the Arab world was more than 29 percent in 2014, the highest in any region of the world.
It will provide an opportunity to participants to exchange expertise and benefit from experiences regarding youth employment and establish effective partnerships that benefit Arab youth.
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