Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad signed into effect a law Saturday, December 8 creating an agency to battle the country's severe unemployment, which touches an estimated 20 percent of Syria's job-age population, the official SANA news agency reported.
"The law sets out for the creation of a general body to battle against unemployment," SANA reported, citing the law's text. The agency can be renewed every five years. In October, Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustapha Miro announced a program to create 440,000 jobs at the cost of 50 billion Syrian pounds (one billion dollars).
The new unemployment taskforce will study ways to create work, "diversify the structure of the economic and services sectors and absorb new arrivals on the job market," the text said. Experts estimate some 250,000 and 300,000 people enter the Syrian job market every year. The agency will fall under the state minister of planning's jurisdiction. The minister will write an annual plan to tackle joblessness, which will be evaluated by the United Nations Development Fund and other aid donors. — (AFP, Damascus)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
