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Jordan's queen warns of Middle East youth unemployment

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-11-03 07:01

AMMAN -- Jordan's Queen Rania said on Sunday the youth unemployment is a "ticking time bomb" in the Middle East and called upon regional nations to make education more job-oriented.

At the meeting of the Arab Sustainability Leadership Group (ASLG), Rania said youth employability is of major concern in the region.

"With 60 percent of our population under the age of 30 and one out of every four is unemployed, we have to create 5 million jobs per year just to prevent a rise in unemployment," she said.

Although literacy rates are high in the Arab world, "the gains in education are not being translated into gains in employment," noted the queen.

According to the queen, the region already has the highest rate of youth unemployment in the world. The number of unemployed people under 30 in the region would jump from 15 million today to 100 million by 2020.

She urged authorities to make school curriculum more work- oriented, and encouraged Arab business community to develop sustainable solutions to "bridge the gap between school and work."

The ASLG, initiated earlier this year by the queen, has tried to encourage businesses to balance profit with environmental protection and equal opportunity.

In the next two days, participants will identify the ways to overcome the challenges of sustainability in the region, and work out the most efficient approach of publicizing the concept.