Urgent economic measures in Syria to shore economy

The BBC's correspondent in Damascus said on Saturday that the new Syrian government is trying to alleviate as much as possible the number of the unemployed and to lessen fears of increased unemployment in an atmosphere of clear economic recession.

This is through launching an emergency national program project to which US $960,000 was allotted and that was not included as part of the budget to be spent during three years.

The correspondent added that number of unemployed is estimated at more than two million.

Sources in the Damascus chamber of industry said that Syria needs more than US $50 billion to solve the unemployment problem.

The number of workers in Syria is estimated at 4 million, most working in agriculture, while Syria's population is estimated at 17 million. Half of them are youths who need work opportunities after graduation.

The correspondence added that Syrian Minister of Planning Isam al-Zaeim stressed that the new national "emergency" project will ensure new work opportunities created by several small and intermediate projects in attracting appropriate investments and establishing small agricultural projects to solve the unemployment problem in the rural areas and limit the flow of the labor force to the main cities.

Al-Zaeim attributed the increased volume of unemployment in Syria to the continued population growth which is coupled with the reduction in the public and private investments.

The correspondent added that the most expressive caricature about the unemployment crisis in Syria is that published by the Syrian Arabic-language daily Tishreen portraying a man siting on his luxurious chair and holds in his hand a paper on which is written "just one work opportunity," and hundreds of thousands of people applying for this job are gathering around him.