Mediterranean states should cooperate to tackle unemployment:experts
Date 2009/11/22 9:41:15 | Topic: Afran
| (Xinhua) -- Mediterranean states should energize their cooperation to eliminate unemployment, experts said on Saturday.
"I think countries in the region must share expertise to find the best way to counter unemployment," said Taib Hadri, an expert at Tunisian Strategic Studies Institute.
Representatives of research and strategic studies organizations from Mediterranean countries are attending a two-day meeting, with labor market, illegal migration and regional integration top on its agenda.
"We need a common future vision for the Mediterranean. Cooperation between the North and the South is necessary. We need to improve economic partnership, boost trade exchange and upgrade development," added Taib Hadri.
Cecile Jolly, an expert from Mediterranean World Economic Prospect Institute, stressed the need to put the employment issue at the top of Mediterranean states' agenda as a move to create enough jobs.
"Employment file must be included in the priorities of the North-South cooperation in order to identify the best way to reduce the jobless rate," Jolly said.
According to figures published in the meeting, 31 percent of the Mediterranean population are under 15 years old, which requires the creation of 22.5 million new jobs by 2030.
Unemployment rate stands at 13 percent in the southern Mediterranean shore where the ratio of active workforce is at a low level.
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