Jordan Times
Tuesday, September 7, 2004
National Conference on Poverty
and Unemployment opens
AMMAN (Petra) — Prime Minister Faisal Fayez on Monday opened the National
Conference on Poverty and Unemployment, pledging his government would continue
with its efforts to deal with the problem and work towards further economic
achievements.
The government is determined to fulfil His Majesty King Abdullah's vision
regarding the national economy and will exert efforts to create job
opportunities and encourage people to work and share in reaping the fruit of
their labour, the premier said in an address at the opening of the conference.
Fayez, who deputised for King Abdullah at the opening ceremony, said the
conference was a clear indicator of the government's resolve to find new and
practical mechanisms to deal with the problem of poverty and unemployment.
The premier referred to his promise to Parliament to hold the conference and
said the discussions would help the government adopt practical recommendations
and find solutions that can deal with the chronic problem.
In line with development programmes and in response to the King's directives,
the government conducted surveys to determine the extent of poverty and
unemployment and prepared a study with the help of local and international
experts to gauge the actual volume of poverty, according to Fayez.
According to the study, the level of poverty in the Kingdom receded from 21.3
per cent in 1997 to 14.2 per cent in 2002, proving that a reduction of the
poverty level is feasible.
However, the study also revealed that the level of poverty in 20 districts
reached 26 per cent, according to Fayez, who vowed to uproot this problem which
he classified as an urgent national priority.
He also promised that the government would carry out a specialised study to
determine the economic, social and demographic nature of the poor by delving
deep into the problem to determine the causes of poverty.
Fayez said the government realises that to combat poverty and unemployment
education systems should be overhauled and new and more developed vocational
training programmes are required to meet the demands of the labour market. That
is why it has embarked on a series of steps to reform the education system,
reorganise the labour market and control the employment of non-Jordanians, he
added.
Fayez said the government has included the unemployed and the poor, nearly
500,000 citizens, in the national health insurance system and it plans to
include 300,000 more before the end of 2004.
Expressing hope that the conference would come up with practical decisions, the
prime minister called for the creation of a follow- up committee to undertake
the process of implementing the conference's recommendations.