Economic challenges, Opportunities and Employment In the economic realm too, it is clear that what Europe and the Arab region share is far more significant than what divides them. What emerged most strongly from the panel’s discussion was a sense of a huge and ambitious population of young people who have adapted with energy to repeated crises and setbacks, yet whose potential is still being stifled at every turn. Across the Arab world, 7.4 million young people are unemployed. Rabea Ataya, founder and CEO of the Middle East’s leading job site, Bayt.com, said it would take more than 100 million new jobs over the next decade simply to maintain this dire situation and prevent further unemployment. A key part of the problem is a lack of vocational training and work experience for young people: the vast majority are not getting the chance to develop management and other “soft” skills. The panel emphasised the crucial importance of entrepreneurship – which is vital, Bernard Wientjes and Salim Rabbani agreed, to stability as well as growth – and the enormous obstacles facing it. Ataya insisted that in the US, start-ups were creating millions of jobs every year, where older companies were destroying them. He cited polls showing that a huge number of young people in the Arab region would rather start their own business than be employed. Yet vast interest rates, corruption, and paralysing bureaucracy make forming a company cost more and take longer than almost anywhere else in the world. Speakers: Joumana Al Jabri - co-founder of Visualizing Impact Simon Andary - Sales Director Business Unit Baggage at Vanderlande Industries Rabea Ataya - founder and CEO of Bayt.com Salim Rabbani - Managing Director of RTC and Chairman of the Lutfia Rabbani Foundation Bernard Wientjes - Professor of Entrepreneurship and Leadership, Utrecht University Moderator: Mouin Rabbani - Independent Middle East analyst 13
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