Algerian Economic experts to Echorouk: “Government’s economic systems lack clear vision and positions to deal with unemployment”

The most dangerous threats to the economic policies of the Algerian government is the absence of clear vision and positions to deal with basic problems of the society, particularly unemployment”, economic experts say.

“Escaping from the truth does not work because spending at the current pace did neither produce new job opportunities nor reduce the pace of importation, before the failure of job and integration policies operating since the nineties.

Economic expert Abderrahman Mebtoul said government played down dangerous implications of the policy of escaping forward to Algerian society, before awakening to the reality of more bitterness.

He explains that the issue further than envisaged by government, because the calamity of the Algerian economy lies in the bureaucracy, the spread of bribery and instability of the legal framework, financial system, flabby and separate from the global financial system, as well as the lack of credibility for economic systems.

Mr. Mebtoul asserted that what would be done in the coming years in the fields of housing, health, public works, tourism, agriculture, technology, media, communication, and transport needs large amounts of money that is impossible to be provided in light of the crisis, however, if government resorts to exchange reserves that accumulated during the previous decade, the problem could be solved then.

“Exchange reserves cannot be exploited in the way expected by government because the large part of them are abroad”, he added.

Official data shows that unemployment in Algeria down from 28% in 2000 to 11.3% end of 2008, but the International Monetary Fund and neutral international bodies go on to say that the real rate of unemployment in Algeria cannot be less than 22%, a percentage that can reach 30% among youth under 30, including high graduates.

Economic expert Mr. Abdelmadjid Bouzidi said that the system of education and training in Algeria are part of the problem because the high rate of schools in Algeria does not make success, because when we analyze the results closely, we find that the situation is close to disaster, due to the current situation of the school which becomes a machine that spin on itself, nothing to do with outputs of the national economy, as half of young graduates of schools and university between 16 and 25 years, are unemployed.

“Youngsters aged between 16 and 29 years suffer more of unemployment, which touches 45% of youth between 16 and 24, 56% of youth between 16 and 19, while young people between 16 and 24 should have their place in schools or universities, but in Algeria they suffer from unemployment, especially as school drop-out rate reaches 350.000 youngsters annually.

Figures by the National Council for Economy and Society show that 75% of youth aged 18 are outside school system without a training that could qualify them to get jobs, pushing government to resort not only to import goods and services, but also workers from China, India, Vietnam, Egypt and Turkey, in sectors that do not need international qualification such as construction and public works.

Today, schools in Algeria release dozens of unemployed because they failed in succeeding, thus increasing problems in labor market and causing hustle for the national economy, simply because they have no qualifications, then the Algerian economy is unable to absorb their large number due to the lack of strong growth, and the training centers grant certificates and not qualifications, and the result is a huge number of job seekers who are unable to do their work appropriately.