½ of Young Arabs Want to Start their Own Business In Next 5 years
-
Alaina
- . July 21, 2023
- . Update: July 21, 2023 7:14 pm
According to the 15th edition of the Asda’a BCW Arab Youth Survey, which was released on Tuesday, there is a promising opportunity for the Arab world to promote youth entrepreneurship. According to the survey, nearly half of young Arabs have plans to start their own business within the next five years.
Also Read – Arab Americans Push for Recognition as Official Minority, MENA Category
According to the survey, most young Arabs want to work in the private sector because government jobs are becoming less and less appealing.
From March 27 to April 12, 2023, the survey talked to 3,600 Arab citizens between the ages of 18 and 24 in their home countries. It went to 53 cities in 18 Arab countries.
A World Bank study found that over 26% of 15–24-year-olds in the region were not working, in school, or getting training. This was one of the highest rates of youth unemployment in the world.
In another United Nations report, it was found that the region needs to create 33,3 million jobs by 2030 to accommodate the large number of young people who will be entering the workforce by then.
The survey investigated how young Arabs feel about their potential future careers and found that 42% of young Arab men and women would like to launch their own company within the next five years. At 53%, this desire was strongest in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, then at 39% in the Levant, and 37% in North Africa.
58 percent of GCC youth said starting a business in their country was “very easy” or “somewhat easy.” They were also more optimistic about their chances of going into business. This is different from the Levant and North Africa, where 79% and 73% of young people, respectively, said it was “very difficult” or “somewhat difficult” to start a business.
Incentives
According to the research, more young people would start their businesses if there were tax breaks, lower fees for startups, better training and education, and loans backed by the government. 15 percent said they wanted to start a business in the technology sector, followed by e-commerce, the creative industries, manufacturing, real estate, the food business, retail, hospitality, and education.
Arab youth wanting to start their businesses is a good sign, but it’s also a natural response to how hard it is to find stable work in some countries. Sunil John, President of Mena BCW and founder of Asda’a BCW, said that policymakers and the business community should do more to help young men and women who are willing to go it alone.
John also said that the private sector is getting a new look because the GCC economies are becoming more diverse. This is a good sign for the long-term health of the economy in the area, and it could be a way for Arab youth from outside the Arabian Gulf to get jobs and other opportunities.
But John said that companies must match this growing interest in a business career by putting in place recruitment and career development programs to help the rapidly changing Arab national workforce in the region.
Private sector jobs
One important thing that the survey has shown over the years is that Arab youth are becoming more interested in jobs in the private sector than in government jobs.
Also Read – Arab Gulf States and Central Asian Countries Strengthen Ties at GCC-C5 Summit
In 2019, almost half of all respondents said they would rather work for the government. Now, only about a third (30%) of people still feel the same way. Also, a third of young Arabs said they would rather work in business, which is 13% more than in 2022.
