BEIRUT: Arab countries are in dire need of creating four million job opportunities every five years to keep up with the fast pace of population growth in the Middle East and North Africa, Ayman Haddad, managing partner of Heidrick and Struggles, said Tuesday, citing a study done by the World Bank.
“The global financial crisis had negative repercussions on the Lebanese emigrant youths and many of them have lost their jobs in the United States and Europe,” said Haddad.
He added that most of the Lebanese usually pursue their careers in professions that are subject to high demand in the Arab world such as architecture, medicine, information technology, media, money and banking and many others.
“Those young people have a great and competitive capacity to adapt to the environment of Arab countries in terms of culture from one side and linguistic skills on the other side. Hence, it is necessary to work on creating millions of job opportunities in the Arab world in order to make up for the job losses of Arabs in the US and Europe,” he added.
His remarks came during the business and financial forum organized by Confex International and held at the Movenpick Hotel and Resort in Beirut. The forum aims at discussing the role of the youth in determining Lebanon’s future.
Joseph Torbey, president of the association of banks in Lebanon, said that the most important challenge facing the Lebanese government is the need to stop the emigration of young people due to the lack of opportunities in Lebanon. “It is the government’s duty to create job opportunities for the thousands of youths who are leaving the country every year,” he said.
“I also want to draw the attention of the Lebanese youths to the growing number of job opportunities that are created by the public sector, which is very important because of the role it plays in serving the society and strengthening the role of the government in addition to its improvement,” he said.
Haddad said the number of Lebanese emigrants reached 14 million, adding that 850,000 of them are young people.
“Moreover, universities in Lebanon graduate 27,000 students each year, some of them stay in Lebanon and the rest emigrate,” he said.
He added that Lebanon has a golden opportunity to take advantage of the educated and skilled Lebanese people working outside the country and attract them to come and work in both the public and private sectors in the country.
A survey conducted by Heidrick & Struggles International indicated that Lebanon is the fourth most desirable country in the Middle East to relocate to among 8 countries included in the survey, as reported by Lebanon This Week, the economic publication of the Byblos Bank Group.
The study said that Lebanon ranked ahead of Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, and came behind Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE on the firm’s Desirability Index. According to the study, the index is based on the proportion of respondents’ awareness about a country as well as their ratings of six parameters that are market value of work experience, quality of education, social environment, work environment, potential for saving money, and personal and family safety.