(with photos) CAIRO, March 18 (KUNA) -- Kuwaiti economic figures said that their country has low unemployment rates compared with other Arab countries.
On the sidelines of the Conference on the Unemployment Crisis in the Arab Countries held here, Director of the Arab Planning Institute Dr. Essa Al-Ghazali told KUNA that the Kuwaiti government deals seriously with the unemployment problem.
He pointed out that the Arab world will need more than 80 million job opportunities in the next two decades, adding that this number is a challenge to the decision makers.
For his side, assistant secretary of the Higher Council for Planning and Development Hamad Munawer said that Kuwait has an encouraging experience in combating unemployment.
The cooperation between the Kuwaiti government and the private sector reduces unemployment to 1.5 percent, he added.
The number of Kuwaitis who work in the private sector increased from 2 percent to 16 percent in the past four years, he pointed out.
Meanwhile, official at Kuwait's Manpower and Government Restructuring Program (MGRP) Jassem Abdullah Al-Naqa told KUNA that the MGRP succeeded in hiring 11,886 unemployed people in the private sector two years after it kicked off its activities. (end) kz.asa.hw.ris KUNA 181035 Mar 08NNNN