Employment promotion agency set up

The Moroccan Cabinet adopted on Thursday a bill setting up a national agency for employment promotion as well as the decree enforcing the bill.

The announcement was made by the governmental spokesman, Khalid Alioua, at the end of the Cabinet's weekly meeting, held under the chairmanship of Premier Abderrahmane Youssoufi.

The setting up of the agency is part of the government's efforts to stimulate the employment policy and determination to implement the instructions made by the late King Hassan II in the speech he delivered on the occasion of Youth Day last July 9 as well as the orientations outlined by his successor, King Mohammed VI, in the Throne Speech, said Alioua, who is also minister of social development, solidarity, employment and vocational training.

In the Throne Speech -- his first since he ascended the throne following the demise of his father, the late King Hassan II, last July 23 -- King Mohammed VI voiced a strong will to eradicate unemployment and open wide horizons for the country's youth.

The king pledged to defeat joblessness, eradicate its repercussions, keep the doors of employment wide open for the mounting numbers of youths and encourage it to exert efforts and show creativity and spirit of initiative.

Unemployment in urban areas currently stands at 21.9% while the national average unemployment rate in Morocco -- which has a 28 million strong population -- stands at 13.8%, as revealed by a recent study conducted by the Moroccan employment department.