DOHA: An incredible 100 million young Arabs will be out looking for jobs by the year 2020, but the prospect of their finding gainful employment looks grim, speakers at a symposium said here yesterday.
Greater entrepreneurship skills and small and medium enterprises can help ease the problem to a large extent but, sadly, they are conspicuous by their near absence across the Arab world, the experts said.
The symposium on Global Investment was held by the financial services firm Amwal and the panel debating the above issue at a post-lunch session was devoted to 'Fostering Entrepreneurship and Job Creation in the Middle East'.
The education system was primarily faulted by some panelists for not focusing on overall personality development of the youth by encouraging self-dependence, creativity and entrepreneurship.
The panel included Dr Tidu Maini, Executive Chairman of Qatar Science and Technology Park; Sobhi Batterjee, Founder-President and CEO of Saudi-German Hospitals Group; Professor Bulent Gultekin, Associate Professor of Finance, Wharton University of Pennsylvania; and Assem Kabesh, CEO of Young Arab Leaders.
At least one speaker wondered what had gone wrong with Arabs, who have historically been great entrepreneurs.
Lack of official support and cultural reaction to failure were cited as some of the major factors discouraging entrepreneurship in the Gulf region by a member of the audience during the question and answer session.
Around 47 percent of university students in the Arab world cannot write their CVs (curriculum vitae) and apply for jobs, which reflects badly on the quality of education imparted by these institutions, another speaker told the symposium.
Citing the other problems faced by young citizens in expatriate-dominated economies in the GCC countries, a speaker pointed out that a vocational institute in Saudi Arabia churned out local plumbers and electricians in the thousands, but they refused to take up jobs after training since the plumbing and electrical trades in the country were dominated by Indians.
Aware of the problem, the Saudi government has begun providing micro-financing so an increasing number of the products of this institute can now set up their own businesses and employ fellow citizens.
To overcome the problem of cultural reaction to failure, it was pointed out by another speaker that at least in Qatar the government could provide support to entrepreneurs to ensure they did not fail. "A generation hence, the offspring of such entrepreneurs would be on their own," the speaker suggested.
By Mobin Pandit
© The Peninsula 2009
