Minister of Finance, Mr. Hany Kadry returned Monday morning from Jordan after his participation in the IMF conference held in Amman,  Jordan  titled “ Building the Future: Jobs, Growth and Justice in Arab World” The conference was launched by the Prime Minister of Jordan Mr. Abdallah Al Nassour with the presence of the IMF executive director, Ms. Christine Lagarde, the general director of the International Monetary Fund, and Abd El-Lateif Al Hamd ,the general director of the Arab Fund of economic and social development. In addition to a number of Ministries of Finance , Central Banks Governors in Arab countries , policymakers ,civil society ,public and private sector representatives; and the academics.

Minister of Finance, Mr. Hany Kadry Dimian, confirmed that conference’s objective is to build economic visions of  Middle East region for increase operation rates , improve  business environment, investment climate through benefiting from other countries experiences all over the world , succeeded radically in its economies reform ,totally re-identified priorities ,activate transparency ,and governance principles.

The session headed by the Minister of Finance ,Hany Kadry Dimian, entitled “Returning youth to labor market” discussed unemployment problem ,focused on  youth category ,ways to improve job environment regarding how to qualify youth for labor market by both public and private sectors’ participation, and how to achieve the maximum benefit from imminent demographics transformation phase in the region ,specifically in Egypt which characterized by a high proportion of youth in the age group (15-64) compared to children and older persons.

The Minister said that the conference importance stems from high unemployment rates in the North Africa , reached  last year to a percent of (12,2%) of labor force , and estimated by (10,9 %) in the Middle East region ,and reached among youth in Egypt to 25% according to recent  statistics. The region also faces another challenges represented in low rate of women’ participation in the labor market, a huge expansion in informal sector’ size, which assimilate more than two-thirds of employment in the Middle East and North Africa region. Take note that this sector suffers from a lack of  working conditions stability, especially low productivity and wages , and lack of  insurance against old age or disease risks.

To encounter youth unemployment problem in Egypt, the Minister asserted  that the Ministry of Finance is seeking to decrease  budget deficit in order to reduce private sector’ State crowding in borrowing from banks ,enable more funding for private sector projects and thus provide more job opportunities.