source : https://www.arabnews.com/
- Unemployment set to decline at the end of this year from 11 percent in 2019
- ‘Algerian youth have turned COVID-19 solutions into viable business ideas’
DUBAI: Young innovators are helping diversify Algeria’s economy away from a reliance on oil and gas, a minister told the World Economic Forum’s virtual conference on Wednesday.
Despite COVID-19 challenges and a fall in new business registrations, the Algerian government is committed to promoting entrepreneurship, Yacine Oualid, Algeria’s Minister of Startups at the Ministry of Micro-Enterprises, Startups and the Knowledge Economy, said.
“The startups space is a big priority for our government. We have set up a new public fund and have initiated tax exemptions as we believe that startups and small businesses can boost employment in the country after the pandemic,” he said during a panel discussion titled “Global Jobs Outlook 2021: Scenarios for the Jobs Reset.”
Algeria’s unemployment rate was 11 percent at the end of 2019, but the minister expects the jobless figure to improve by the end of 2020.
“We have been successful in keeping new daily coronavirus cases below 200, and our government has not faced any roadblocks in rolling out several policy measures to boost the economy,” he said.
“Our focus has been on improving our digital infrastructure and job creation. As a result, several new businesses have established themselves, providing health services and medical goods in recent months. The Algerian youth have turned COVID-19 solutions into viable business ideas.”
Oualid said that e-commerce offers major opportunities in North African markets as consumers shift online.
Regional startups will be key drivers of economic growth, creating most of the jobs in the region, he added.
This year has been disastrous for the global jobs market, with working incomes falling by 11 percent, or $3.5 trillion, in the past 10 months and further disruption likely, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO).
However, the Algerian government appears to be on the right track. Director-General of the ILO, Guy Ryder, who was also a panelist in the same discussion, believes that governments must not withdraw help at what is a critical juncture.
“If governments do pull back, either because resources are becoming limited or because they think it’s time to move people along, then we can expect a violent spike in open unemployment in the week and months ahead, and that is a very dangerous situation,” he said.
“It’s a long and difficult transition, and I would beware of letting people go and hitting the cliff, as it were.”
Ryder warned of “massive” dislocation in the labor market, saying: “We estimate that 495 million jobs will be lost by the middle of this year. There has been a massive hit to income from labor, down by more than 10 percent.
“That is why it is vital that we have this discussion about jobs not after the health emergency but now. We are going to have to build forward from a very dark place,” he said.
