A. Competitiveness Indexes
2.4. Jordan’s national employment strategy 2011-2020
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in liberating the purchasing powers of several persons who were trapped by their own shares.
On the demand side, the government must be serious in curbing the expenses of independent institutions. It should also abolish several commissions, ministries and corporations burdening the national economy, for it is legitimate to question, for example, the reason for having a ministry for transport in the presence of five authorities vested with regulatory powers of land, air and marine transportation.
2.3.5.3. Conclusion. The reform program that we need in this critical stage should be the work of a team because no single person can alone claim to be able to form a real reform program nationwide. The government, in turn, should now create a rescue and national economic reform cell so that we can move ahead in the second decade of this century in a recovered national economy, having been hampered by the successive governments over the past seven years.
Economic reform is still an under-addressed obligation in Jordan with the blame set on the successive governments. But, it is the individual citizens that pay the price and the taxes without seeing any tangible result in growth and development indices. It is a fact most obvious in the modest growth, increased debt, rising deficit both as a percentage and a value, declining job opportunities and increased poverty pockets.
2.4. Jordan’s national employment strategy 2011-2020.
This paper is one of the most modern papers prepared well by both the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation in the words of the minister, Mr. Jafar Hassan who focused on Job creation is a crucial issue for any government. The task is all the more critical in Jordan because more than half of the population is under twenty years of age, and more people enter the job market than leave it each year. Employment figures in Jordan are hardly
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comforting: Youth unemployment rates have remained in the double digits for more than a decade, and women's participation in the labor market is among the lowest in the world.
Moreover, periods of strong growth have not resulted in strong job creation for Jordanians, which clearly indicates a structural dysfunction that needs to be addressed. The National Employment Strategy (NES) was developed in response to this challenge, to identify and prioritize the areas where intervention would have the greatest impact in rectifying unemployment anomalies and enhancing employability. For the NES to be effective, it had to meet three important conditions:
2.4.1. Factors affect employment. The first derives from the multiplicity of input factors that affect employment, such as social norms, education, and working conditions, as well as the various players, including labor and professional associations, business owners and their associations, and the government. Therefore, the strategy had to be developed through extensive dialogue and consensus building between the different stakeholders. The second condition draws from Jordan's limited resources and the pressing nature of the unemployment problem.
Therefore, the NES had to focus on practical solutions with quantifiable performance indicators as well as mechanisms for assessment and corrective action where needed. Finally, enhancing employability requires a consistent and sustained effort over the medium and long term. The NES had to ensure sustainability through an institutional framework to coordinate policies and programs, and to hold stakeholders and governments accountable for implementation of its strategy and action plan.
The Ministry of Labour, that he emphases The current vision of the Kingdom of Jordan is that of a globalized and competitive economy, a vibrant private sector, a qualified and productive labor force, efficient public organizations, and a continued adherence to the
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principles of international human rights standards. To enable us to realize this vision, several practical steps need to be undertaken, particularly in the area of employment and labor market governance. As such, the National Employment Strategy (NES) comes as a contribution towards this national vision. The NES outlines our principles, approach, strategies, and targets for raising the quality and quantity of employment outcomes and improving labor market governance.
Despite the daunting employment challenges our country has continuously faced, no overarching employment strategy has ever been developed before, as it is usually assumed that employment is an outcome of other strategies and policies. It is true that solid economic and sectoral strategies are needed to create new jobs. However, it is obvious from where we stand today that this is not enough. Employment needs to be carefully planned, managed, monitored, and integrated in all other social and economic strategies and programs.
The NES was developed through a consultative process with our social partners and other stakeholders. Hence this document is a reflection of a consensus that was reached between the government, social partners, and other actors on how to reshape and streamline national employment and labor market policies and actions.
2.4.2. The NES sections. The NES has three main sections. The first develops the NES vision against the current reality of the labor market; the second provides a comprehensive and systematic diagnosis for the labor market; and the third presents the way forward. Overall, the NES articulates the following components: Gradually Replacing foreign workers with Jordanians, supporting employment projects and programmes , enhanced training of Jordanians according to the needs of the labor market, supporting vocational education and training,
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enhancing investment in employment, supporting an entrepreneurship culture, supporting people with special needs, decreasing restructured employment, supporting labor market employment projects, supporting workers' rights (social security, insurance, etc.),supporting tripartite dialogue . These objectives are broad and reflect national aims that do not pertain only to employment. Therefore, the NES is about also facilitating a common understanding of the existing employment challenges and the need for collaborative efforts towards addressing them.
The NES benefitted from a wealth of studies, research papers, policy reports, and pilot projects developed by the Government of Jordan, international organizations such as the ILO and UNDP, and supporting donor agencies such as CIDA, and USAID. the executive summary of the study focused on creating jobs in adequate quantity and quality is a top priority for Jordan - a small economy with few resources other than its human capital - yet it remains a daunting challenge.
Employment remains a daunting challenge not so much for lack of analysis or diagnosis of the underlying problems and their solutions, but because of a lack of consistency in following through on plans and creating the institutional environment in which policy coordination, monitoring, and evaluation are applied to achieve the desired outcome of job creation. The challenge is to formulate a focused, credible, and sustainable National Employment Strategy (NES) that delivers measurable results. The NES gives as much emphasis to diagnosis as it does to implementable actions.
Section I: It develops the main goal of the NES and provides a "snapshot" of the current realities of the Jordanian labor market. Section I: Vision versus Current Reality. This section develops the main goal of the NES based on the overall vision laid out by the National Agenda in 2005, and provides a "snapshot" of the current realities of the Jordanian labor market. NES vision: The NES derives its vision from that of the National Agenda, albeit with a focus on
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employment generation: Improving standards of living for Jordanians, through increased employment, wages, and benefits, and productivity improvements. The overall unemployment rate has hovered in the range of 12-14 percent throughout the last decade.
Section II: Diagnosing the Labor Market. This section approaches the labor market in terms of its main components: the demand side, the supply side, and the institutional structure in which the market operates. The NES closely examines sources of segmentation of the labor market, namely public/private, male/female, national/foreign, rural/urban, and formal/informal labor issues. Economic growth and employment in Jordan saw strong economic growth during the first eight years of the past decade (2000-2008); GDP grew at an average rate of 6.7 percent and an estimated 457,000 net jobs were created. Unemployment rates hardly budged, however, remaining within the 12 to 14 percent range. A closer examination of jobs created helps explain this apparent paradox: of all the jobs created between 2000-2008, almost 42 percent were in the public sector. Furthermore, more than half of the jobs created in the private sector went not to Jordanians but to foreign workers. The NES explores the demand, supply, institutional, and market segmentation issues that could be limiting the impact of economic growth on creating jobs (employment elasticity of growth).
Section III: The Way Forward. It focuses on the way forward, identifying specific goals, constraints, priority actions, and implementation arrangement. This section combines the vision statement developed in Section I with the diagnosis of current challenges identified in Section II to develop a strategic plan for the future in the form of goals, actions, priorities, timetables, scenarios, performance indicators, monitoring and evaluation, and risk mitigation. On the demand side, the strategic goal is to enable the private sector to move up the value chain and increase value added, to improve its productivity, and to expand its ability to export products
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and services. On the supply side, the goal is to graduate a skilled and motivated labor force armed with employable skills and technical knowhow as demanded by the labor market. Finally, the institutional framework goals are twofold to enhance the ability of the government to carry out strategic planning policy implementation, monitoring and evaluation, development of labor market information systems, and institutionalized dialogue with social partners; and ii) to establish a level playing field of social protection and access to health insurance, independent of whether workers are in the public or private sector, and regardless of the size of the enterprise.
These demand, supply, and institutional goals are spelled out into intermediate goals and specific program objectives, which in turn are translated into actions. Setting Priorities and Horizons represent important pieces of the overall strategy; they are not all of the same importance in terms of impact. There are also different gestation periods for different policies and programs; i.e., some will produce immediate results while others will take years, but they are all important for realizing the vision.
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Taiwanese economy and challenges
3.1. Introduction
Taiwan has been able to fast track ahead in economic development at the global level, it is becoming a model of modernity and development to others, in spite of suffering from conditions imposed by predestination them, the level of China's continuing security threat1, and the regional rivalry between extreme states of the region each of which is characterized by the most powerful component of the other, such as Japan, China, Singapore and South Korea2.
Many wonder about the reasons that contributed to the arrival of Taiwan to the outstanding level, in spite of the harshness and severity of conditions generated in the political component, but that some features laid the foundations components of a democratic state in which to grow and advance more and more3.
The count for the Administration of social life began to be based on equality for all and respect for others, moreover, its ability to adapt to the international environment, and this is reflected through the state's ability to careful planning and diligent work centered on sound scientific bases.
Taiwan has been able at the economic level simply to make the numbers speak for its achievements4, its out-performed major countries in terms of industrial production rates such
1 Goldstein, Avery, Raising to the challenge: China’s Grand Strategy and international security, Standford, Calf. 2005.pp.172-174.
2 G. Sutter, Robert, China’s Rise in Asia: Promises and Perils, Lanham, Md.:Rowmanand LittleField,2005, pp:177-208.
3 Yun Chen, Sheue, State, media and democracy in Taiwan, article Comparative Political Studies June 1, 2001 34, NTNU, Taipei, Taiwan , pp: 493-526.
4Taiwan Statistical Data Book (TSDB), 1975, 1985, 1993, 2000. Council for Economic Planning and Development, Republic of China.
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as United States , it is became more than 6% over 30 years starting from 1979 until 2009.
However, the competition attracted the province, making fears increased that lead to drowsiness economy, Taiwan's economic options are limited, and the areas and opportunities for advancement tight despite that Taiwan opened up encouraging prospects for foreign investment by offering many unique features.
But Taiwan fears increased with growing its economy's dependence on China5, which in turn increases China's economic clout, but it also extends to threaten Taiwan independence.