Giving young people the skills to develop mobile apps will help to curb youth unemployment in the Middle East, which is expected to reach 29 per cent by 2016, a United Nations study showed.
“Youth in developing countries lag their developed world counterparts in experience with ICTs [information and communications technology],” according to the Innovative ICT Solutions for Youth Employment report that was represented by the ITU at the World Telecommunication Development Conference in Dubai yesterday. “Even those with access are not being equipped with the ICT skills they need to succeed.”
The study said that unemployment in the Middle East continues to be the highest in the world. And gender disparities remain wide in the region, with 42.6 per cent of females unemployed compared to 24.5 per cent of males in the region.
Young people in the Middle East are inclined to look for employment in the public sector because these jobs offer higher pay, better benefits, shorter working hours and job security, the study showed.
However, despite the benefits these jobs are contracting.
The study said that ICT literacy “not only qualifies people for jobs in conventional job sectors, but also opens doors to participate in rapidly growing markets”.
Those with more advanced ICT skills can also tap into the growth of "app-economy" a new concept of developing apps for mobile phones, social media and the game industry.
It is believed that the next 10 million apps will not come from leading markets, but rather from the developing world, with a rise in demand in localised apps.
“Opportunities exist for developers to produce apps that are relevant in both local language and content,” said the study. “Emerging apps economies have potential markets that are much larger than that of English-speaking regions in Europe.”
One of the countries in the region that promoted the development of apps is Egypt. The Egyptian ministry of information and telecommunication hosts an annual competition to develop apps with people suffering from disabilities, according to the study.
“ICT is a means for developed and developing countries to meet youth unemployment, it is a means for good governance through social network,” said Hamadoun Touré, the International Telecommunication Union secretary general.
selgazzar@thenational.ae
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