Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) financial secretary Othman M. Sharif presented a working paper during a roundtable meeting held in Cairo regarding youth unemployment and drastic transformations in the Arab world on the sidelines of the 39th Arab Labor Conference held in Cairo.The meeting discussed a number of significant topics pertaining to problems and difficulties facing young men and women in the Arab world, and explored a number of proposed solutions in order to surmount such problems and to curb unemployment in Arab countries.

Sharif’s paper discussed major factors that led to spread of unemployment in Arab countries, showing percentages and estimated size of the phenomenon, citing socio-political and personal factors and adversely negative impact on individual persons and the community as a whole and indicating official government efforts aimed at lower the already increasingly growing numbers of unemployed young people and programs and grants in supporting the 20% unemployed Arab population.

Mr. Sharif presented the Kingdom of Bahrain’s experience in grants programs provided to the unemployed.

The BCCI’s delegation participating in the conference led by BCCI’s chairman Dr. Essam Abdullah Fakhroo and comprises BCCI’s finance secretary Othman M. Sharif, Arab Labor Organization’s board member Ebrahim A. Al-Linjawi, and LMRA’s acting director for legal affairs Mohammed A. Al-Aamer. (IY)