Unemployment in Egypt
Role of the Egyptian Government
Despite all efforts,
Unemployment still comes in the top of the national problems list. An
academic study done by a group working in Cairo Demographic center,
directed
by Dr. Hisham Makhlouf, head of the center, states that several
organizations in Egypt are working hard on solving the unemployment problem
and creating job opportunities for graduates who are increasing one year
after another.
The state has formulated various policies to face this problem such as
fostering investment, facilitating loans for new private enterprises,
providing new graduates with five acres of arable land, implementing
transitional programs run by (the ministry of labor force) One of the most
important measures taken in the last few years was the establishment of the
Social Development Fund in 1991, the primary cause underlying its
establishment is mitigating the negative effects of the economic
development
program on those who receive limited income. The objectives of establishing
the fund, however, extended to the contribution in solving the unemployment
problem, in general, through implementing the four following programs:
business development, social development, employment, and training
programs,
the process of funding which lasted until the end of year 2000, initiated
more than 143 thousand small projects, with 2, 8 Billion pounds, providing
around 392 thousand sustainable jobs, and 117 thousand temporary jobs. It
is
worth mentioning as well that the gigantic projects launched by the state
(e.g. Tousky) will provide ample job opportunities, but that take long,
long
years.
Given that these efforts were not enough to get over the unemployment
problem, the government has adopted, and starting from 2001, a national
program that aims at creating 800 thousand jobs per annum (government
declaration before the people assembly on the 8th of January, 2002)
In The second half of year 2001,
The state introduced 5 programs for employing 800 youth that can be
stated as follows:
1. Youth employment in the state administrative bodies and
institutions and
economic and social institutions program .this program employs 170,000
gradates.
2. Graduates employment in village's information centers, 5 in
each village
and 10 in each district. University graduates are to be paid 150 pounds;
institute graduates are to be paid 150 pounds, secondary graduates 100
pounds. This program provides 32 thousand job opportunities.
3. Local development program directed by the (cooperative
production
Federation) .It provides 128 thousand jobs. This program is based on
providing loans, with 7% interest. Like social development fund, for
workshops owners. In rural areas and cities, in return for employing
graduates. The workshops owner is to be given 10 thousand pounds for each
job opportunity he provides. The limits for funding 6 job opportunities is
60 thousand pounds.
4. Urgent plan for developing villages and districts program,
which was
initiated 9 months ago, by providing each village or district with quarter
a
million pounds, and half a million for Cairo, Giza and Qaliobya. The
program
costs 1, 2 billion annually, reaching 6 billions in 5 years. It creates 100
thousand job opportunities.
5. Program of the transitional training of 420 thousand youth in
ministerial
training centers. Such as (both ministries of housing, military
productions,
etc?). This program is committed to create job opportunities for those
trainees, whether being employed in these ministries or being provided with
loans to start on small projects. In this respect, the number of state
training centers, reached 1237 centers, and they were evaluated in terms of
efficiency and the capability of developing in the transitional training
area, 300 centers were chosen to be developed by the government, as well as
100 centers that the private sector can benefit from.
500 million pounds were allocated for the training programs, in the
2002-2003 budgets.
To be continued.
Best Regards,
Abdallah Diwan
Media Team Leader
YES Country Network Egypt
Sustainable Development Association
abdallahdiwan@hotmail.com
Under the supervision of
Abdallah Sobeih
YES Regional coordinator for Middle East and North Africa
abdallah@yesweb.org
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