Jordan Times
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Youth forum participants
share concerns with King
The ‘We are All Jordan’ forum commission will be tasked to follow up on the
implementation of the youth forum recommendations
DEAD SEA (Petra) — Participants at the “We are All Jordan” youth forum told His
Majesty King Abdullah on Wednesday that they still suffer from inequality and
wasta where job opportunities are concerned.
The King said he would not be lenient with any of these negative phenomena.
“This issue is linked to the culture or the way of thinking. Therefore, it is
necessary to create institutions that guarantee justice and transparency,” he
told the 700 young people representing various regions of the country.
At the forum, which concluded yesterday, the participants briefed the Monarch on
their recommendations and shared their views on various topics.
Addressing the high cost of living, poverty and the government’s measures to
alleviate it, King Abdullah said the results achieved over the past seven years
were considerable. In addition, progress was made in attracting new investments
to the country, creating job opportunities.
The forum participants called for increasing the participation of young people
in the decision making process, and urged support for sports and cultural
centres for youth.
They also proposed the creation of a youth council comprising distinguished
young people.
The participants also demanded an acceleration of efforts to tackle unemployment
and the formulation of development policies to serve young people across the
country.
In the field of scientific research, they recommended the creation of a
scientific database for researchers at the country’s universities and called for
finding sources to finance research projects for students.
The participants also called for activating the role of the Higher Media Council
and suggested creating a weekly TV programme under the supervision of young
people, which would tackle issues of concern to the younger generation.
Among other recommendations were combating the culture of shame and attracting
investment to create job openings for youth.
To reduce unemployment, the participants proposed collecting data about
university graduates, their specialties and the needs of the labour market, in
order to determine points of strength and weakness in the education output.
The participants also called for increasing the number of scholarships offered
to distinguished students, among other suggestions seeking to enhance the
situation of young people in the country and providing them with a better
standard of living.
The King said he would task the “We are All Jordan” forum commission to follow
up on the implementation of the youth forum recommendations.