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عربي
Under the Slogan,” We Build Iraq
by Iraqi Hands” the 2007 Unemployment Conference was Launched.
July 24th.2007
On Tuesday morning, July 24th 2007, the activities of the first
unemployment and construction conference
started. More than 300 individuals representing Iraqi Parliament,
Ministries and private sector companies attended the conference.
Mr. Raad Ommar, Chief Executive Officer of the Iraqi- American
Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the conference organizer, gave
the opening address to the “Rebuild Iraq by Iraqi Hands” conference.
Mr. Ommar explained that “the idea of the conference is to find
labor opportunities for the unemployed graduates of the training
centers through cooperation between the Chamber and the Ministry of
Labor.” Then he continued, “We found surplus of Iraqi trained
graduates from the training centers of the Ministry of Labor,
training centers of Ministry of Higher Education and Ministry of
Youths and Sports who acquired extensive experience in their fields.
We took the responsibility of opening a dialogue with the Bureau of
Rebuilding Iraq and we managed to reach an agreement with both the
American and Iraqi sides to give contracts of focus on rebuilding
Iraq to Iraqi companies.” Omar concluded, “Indeed we worked, all the
short time we had, to have the Iraqi companies participate in this
conference in order to get the contracts of rebuilding Iraq.”
“Iraq is above our heads” (Iraq is foremost) was the opening phrase
of Dr. Mahier Mosa Alubaidy’s speech at the conference. Alubaidy is
the representative of the Ministry of Higher Education. He said, “We
started higher education in Iraq in 1908 by establishing the first
College of Law in Baghdad, then College of Medicine, Education,
Mosul, Basra, Sulaimaniyah….”
Dr. Alubaidy continued, “We are now developing new projects,
colleges in the Al- Karkh side of Baghdad, as well as establishing
scientific universities all over Iraq in order to alleviate the
pressure on the resident areas, especially in Baghdad, to resolve
the problem of the boarding complexes for the students arriving at
the Iraqi universities.” He explained that statistics of training
centers show that 80% are working while 20% are unemployed. There
are 22 scientific centers for medical scientific specializations and
the Medical Center for Scientific Specialization. We are proud to be
in competition with the international universities. Then he referred
to the Ministry’s strategy of 2006 – 2007 at maintaining what was
abandoned from the past by reactivating the University Service Law,
Law of Higher Education and the administration and financial
independence which were approved by the State Consultation Center
and then sent to the Cabinet. Dr. Alubaidy concluded, “We employed
1200 Ph.D. graduates, 6000 Masters graduates, provided a new,
generous fund of money to maintain the university’s budgets and
started a scholarship program abroad chaired by Dr. Salam Al-Zobaee
which employed 200 Master’s degree holders in one batch and 4000 of
Master and Ph.D.s in another batch.”
Dr. Mahdi Al-Hafedh, Member of the Parliament and Director of the
Advanced Policies Center, called for settlement of the internal
disputes, adopting free economic philosophy, non reliance on
government and increased oil products. He expressed a vital need for
openness and polarization of investments to develop the oil sector
in Iraq since there is a reserve of 115 billion barrel and an
expected 250 billion more. He also called for development of the
non- oil sectors to make a varied economy because, till now, the
sectors of oil, banks and industries are not in pace with current
development and the Investment law is not implemented yet. Hence
each party should play its real role in rebuilding Iraq.
Dr. Al-Hafedh referred to the high percentage of unemployment and
poverty issues due to the labor market which receives 200 thousand
workers a year. Statistics of those in extreme poverty goes to 10%
(an individual survives on one USD a day) and this constitutes 10 –
15 % of the Iraqi society. He concluded his speech by describing
women participation as less than 19% and the need for adoption of
rehabilitating and privatizing, supporting the private sector and
development in Iraqi Ministries.
Thereafter, Mr. Riyadh Ghareeb, representative of the Ministry of
Labor and Social Affairs, talked about the role of the Ministry at
limiting the unemployment by opening training centers. He called for
establishing projects to the 130 thousand trained graduates to
decrease unemployment and he addressed the companies of the private
sector to provide better labor opportunities for Iraqi individuals
to survive respectfully.
He also confirmed the role of the Ministry in its first experience
in giving loans to the owners of small and medium projects in
cooperation with the Rafidain Bank and he added that priority is
given to the displaced people and martyrs relatives, describing this
policy as an important step towards creating a new generation out of
the Iraqi private sector.
Col. Victoria Diego-Allard, representative of the Joint Contracting
Command Iraq, introduced the Iraqi First Program for business
initiative. The Colonel welcomed those in attendance and expressed
her happiness to be in Iraq. She confirmed that the program is
dedicated first to Iraqi companies because the foreign companies
demand high security costs. The program aims at mobilizing the Iraqi
economy market, establishing Iraqi companies and providing labor
chances with the American hand over of the Construction Bureau to
the Iraqis for the service of Iraq.
Dr. Abaas Al- Shamary, representative of the Ministry of Youths and
Sports said,” Youths should be well prepared, trained and cared for
to limit the unemployment and provide better opportunities for jobs.
He confirmed that until now there has been no cooperation between
them and the Ministry of Labor to provide loans to establish new
projects for the unemployed, many of whom have been registered and
trained at the centers of the Ministry of labor. He also confirmed
non – reliance on the government to support the youths but to urge
the private sector to back up the youth through the interaction
between experience and money.
“The Multi National Force is working hard to rehabilitate the
vocational training centers of the Ministry of Labor to participate
in limiting the unemployment” said Col. Ronald C. Allen about
VOTECHs in Iraq. He confirmed that they have 11 training centers now
in Baghdad, 9 in Basra and 11 in the northern parts of Iraq. He
added that there are many youths looking for jobs but there is no
chance for them to get work though the conference unless we seek the
opportunity to provide jobs for them. Moreover Iraqi manpower is
striving to look for training and this is what we are doing in
coordination with the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs as well
as the vocational training centers.
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