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Muslim youth expect more

Dubai - Unemployment, lack of opportunities key challenges in Islamic economy

Governments are not doing enough to address the needs of Islamic youth, according to around 50 per cent of the delegates who attended the first session of the Global Islamic Economy Summit 2016 in Dubai on Tuesday.
An interactive poll at the opening session of the Summit found that half of the delegates believe governments must do more to address the needs of youth in the region.
When asked if they were optimistic that governments in the region were appropriately addressing the needs of their youth, 50 per cent of delegates said they were not, 42 per cent said they were, with eight per cent being undecided.
One panellist at the opening plenary, Tirad Mahmoud, CEO of Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, suggested even this result was conservative. "I think this is optimistic," he said. "If you polled youth throughout the region, I think you'd get a result that is far more concerning."
The session, titled 'Today's Youth, Tomorrow's Leaders: Scalable Solutions to Empower the Next Generation', addressed key issues facing young people in the Islamic economy: unemployment, lack of opportunities and lack of voice.
Population growth
Addressing the issue of rapid population growth - the youth segment of the world's 1.7 billion Muslims are growing at twice the global average - panellist Ali Al Nuaimi, senior nuclear professional and member of the UAE Emirates Youth Council, said that while some governments see this as a challenge, others see it as an opportunity.
He said the leadership of the UAE was actively asking youth on what they think about their future. He highlighted the appointment of a Minister of State for Youth Affairs in February as a concrete example of the UAE striving to give voice to the youth. "The youth are capable, they are the most adaptable. They can accommodate changes and can adopt new technologies. Some governments are lagging in this. But here, we believe in our youth, we trust them and that's why we invest in them," he said.
Another panellist, Chiara Appendino, the mayor of Turin and one of the youngest senior politicians in Italy, explained how her city was dealing with two key youth challenges familiar to the region: education and employment.
"Education to me means high quality education - to develop skills and work for the community," she said. "Then, we need to create work opportunities. In Turin, we've reinvented our historical business, industry, and working on tourism and cultural attractiveness of the city [has created] new opportunities for young people."
Responding to a question about whether there was still stigma among local youth to work in the private sector, Mahmoud said he had set a goal at ADIB that by 2020, the bank would be self-sustaining in terms of talent. Recruiting local youth is key to meeting that target. "We have instituted a policy where we will not hire from other banks for junior positions. We will recruit 100 per cent from schools and colleges," he explained.
He said that contrary to stereotypes, the youth hired at ADIB were not afraid of hard work. "The tougher our training programmes, the more happy and fulfilled they are. They do not want to be spoon-fed, they want to be challenged instead."
He added that Islamic finance may have an advantage over standard banking in terms of recruitment: "Our research indicates youth are much more interested in ethical banking than general banking."
Al Nuaimi said the future could not be about creating more public sector jobs. "That's not empowerment," he said. "We're focusing on creating an environment where youth can thrive and fulfil their potential." He added that an increased focus on entrepreneurship could be the answer: "Less than three per cent of youth here are entrepreneurs. This is a country of 200 nationalities, people come here from all over the world to start their own businesses. Our youth should be leading this movement and not falling behind."
- abdulbasit@khaleejtimes.com