BAGHDAD, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs launched an initiative to support the unemployed youth by providing them soft loans to start projects, an official newspaper reported Tuesday.

Raed Bahed, director-general of the ministry's Labor and Vocational Training Directorate, told al-Sabah newspaper that the initiative includes a competition of different ideas to start projects to reduce the unemployment rate in the country.

"The initiative or competition covers all the country's provinces and aims to choose pioneering ideas for innovative projects to be supported by the initiative," al-Sabah quoted Bahed as saying.

He said the winners would get an interest-free loan of up to 20 million Iraqi dinars (13,675 U.S. dollars) as well as a year-long period of training and consulting on the projects.

Iraq seeks to reduce its dependence on the export of crude oil, which represents more than 90 percent of the country's revenues. Enditem

Related

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)