03 April 2010
Amman - International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn will Sunday hold an open meeting on youth unemployment with students across the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan.
A press released by IMF said the meeting aims at exchanging views with the next generation of leaders on the economic challenges facing the region, an IMF statement said.
The program is the next step in the IMF Middle East Youth Dialogue, designed to engage young people across the region to help define forward-looking policy solutions.
First and foremost among these challenges is reducing youth unemployment, which requires both sustainable growth and labor market reforms in the Middle East and North Africa.
With the Middle East youth unemployment rate seen as the highest in the world, the region is an ideal launching ground for this new initiative," Strauss-Kahn said.
"The region's fast population growth makes it imperative to generate productive and sustainable jobs that will meet the aspirations of tomorrow's workforce", he added.
The first stage of the dialogue, included roundtable discussions between students of economic faculties and IMF staff held at universities in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates over the past month.
From those sessions, 24 students were selected to travel to Amman to participate in the dialogue, where other students from the University of Jordan have also been invited to attend the meeting.
Director of the IMF Middle East and Central Asia Department Masood Ahmed said that during the past discussions, many students identified the need to reduce unemployment and poverty, and improve education systems as economic policy priorities for their countries.
"Good macroeconomic and financial management lays the basis for the sustained growth that can help address these concerns, adding that IMF is working with countries in the region in finding innovative and country-specific solutions to enhance growth prospects", he added.
During Amman dialogue, students will be asked to raise questions with Strauss-Kahn on many of economic problems facing young people in the Middle East and North Africa.
These issues are of significant importance in the Middle East because of demographic trends that are resulting in a rapid increase in region's youth population, IMF added.
The region's work force is projected to reach 185 million in 2020, 80 percent higher than it was in 2000.
But employment growth rate has lagged far behind the demands of growing populations, a problem only heightened by the impact of the global financial crisis.
According to the January 2010 IMF World Economic Outlook Update, growth in the region plummeted to 2.2 percent last year from 5.3 percent in 2008, projected to recover to only 4.5 percent this year.
So the task of overcoming youth unemployment has become more difficult, IMF concluded.
Amman - International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn will Sunday hold an open meeting on youth unemployment with students across the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan.
A press released by IMF said the meeting aims at exchanging views with the next generation of leaders on the economic challenges facing the region, an IMF statement said.
The program is the next step in the IMF Middle East Youth Dialogue, designed to engage young people across the region to help define forward-looking policy solutions.
First and foremost among these challenges is reducing youth unemployment, which requires both sustainable growth and labor market reforms in the Middle East and North Africa.
With the Middle East youth unemployment rate seen as the highest in the world, the region is an ideal launching ground for this new initiative," Strauss-Kahn said.
"The region's fast population growth makes it imperative to generate productive and sustainable jobs that will meet the aspirations of tomorrow's workforce", he added.
The first stage of the dialogue, included roundtable discussions between students of economic faculties and IMF staff held at universities in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates over the past month.
From those sessions, 24 students were selected to travel to Amman to participate in the dialogue, where other students from the University of Jordan have also been invited to attend the meeting.
Director of the IMF Middle East and Central Asia Department Masood Ahmed said that during the past discussions, many students identified the need to reduce unemployment and poverty, and improve education systems as economic policy priorities for their countries.
"Good macroeconomic and financial management lays the basis for the sustained growth that can help address these concerns, adding that IMF is working with countries in the region in finding innovative and country-specific solutions to enhance growth prospects", he added.
During Amman dialogue, students will be asked to raise questions with Strauss-Kahn on many of economic problems facing young people in the Middle East and North Africa.
These issues are of significant importance in the Middle East because of demographic trends that are resulting in a rapid increase in region's youth population, IMF added.
The region's work force is projected to reach 185 million in 2020, 80 percent higher than it was in 2000.
But employment growth rate has lagged far behind the demands of growing populations, a problem only heightened by the impact of the global financial crisis.
According to the January 2010 IMF World Economic Outlook Update, growth in the region plummeted to 2.2 percent last year from 5.3 percent in 2008, projected to recover to only 4.5 percent this year.
So the task of overcoming youth unemployment has become more difficult, IMF concluded.
© Jordan News Agency - Petra 2010
