CAIRO - 4 December 2019: Egypt's Minister of Manpower Mohamed Saffan said that the major national projects contributed to reducing the unemployment rate to an average of 7.8 percent in the third quarter of 2019, compared with 13.2 percent during the first quarter of 2013.
“The government aims to implement new ideas in cooperation with the SME Development Authority to create up to 1 million small projects that will contribute to creating new job opportunities for young people and further reducing unemployment indicators in Egypt,” the minister said.
The minister of manpower told Egypt Today that the International Labour Organization (ILO) is a major partner of the ministry in the establishment of various projects.
Regarding the electronic link with Arab countries, the minister said that expanding the Egyptian Government's electronic link with Jordan and Kuwaitis moving steadily to eliminate fake contracts, and protect the Egyptian labor from manipulations.
On the draft law on labor, Saffan said that the law is currently being discussed by the House of Representatives and aims to contribute to achieving the required protection and prosperity for workers, establishing an environment of stability and balance at work to increase production.
In light of the recent change of the ministry's leadership with the help of young leaders, the minister stressed that the government targets preparing young leaders to achieve balance in the society.
Speaking of the initiative to train and rehabilitate the people with disabilities to participate in the labor market, the manpower minister said that the ministry launched this initiative to benefit the trainees after the announcement of President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi the year of 2018 as the year for people with special needs.The initiative was implemented by the Ministry of Manpower in cooperation with the Fund for Training and Rehabilitation.
In the same year and during the inauguration of the Seventh International Conference on Information Technology Convergence and Services for People with Disabilities (ICT4PwDs), Sisi also announced establishing an initiative that aims to enable disabled people to get services and information introduced by online websites of governmental institutions.
Sisi also issued law no. 10 for 2018 on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on February 20, after being approved by the Parliament.
Saffan also pointed out that the initiative raised the awareness of people with disabilities of the provisions of the Labor Law, their rights and duties, how to overcome the difficulties of work and how to establish and manage small, medium and large projects.
In 2018, Saffan underscored Egypt's continuous efforts to take all possible measures to uproot child labor in light of the national plan launched with the aim of eliminating child labor by 2025. He added that the plan will be annually reviewed to evaluate the annual accomplishments.
The education completion age in Egypt is 15 years old. The minimum age for hazardous work and military recruitment is 18 years old.
In 2014, the World Food Program and the European Union reported that the number of employed minors in Egypt jumped to at least 2.7 million, according to Cairo Post.
Wed, Dec. 4, 2019
