CAIRO, April 10, 2018 - Cairo and Amman on Tuesday confirmed the importance of the role played by small and medium-sized enterprises in creating job opportunities for young people in the Arab world and reducing unemployment rates. The confirmation was made during a meeting between Egyptian Minister of Manpower Mohammed Saafan and his Jordanian counterpart Sameer Saeed Murad on the sidelines of the 45th Arab Labour Conference which is now being held in Cairo. The meeting covered the conditions of Egyptian workers in Jordan and the need to legalise their stay in the Arab country. Minister Saafan said there was no need for there to be illegal Egyptian workers in Jordan, since Egypt was now encouraging young people to become entrepreneurs and to establish small- and medium-sized enterprises. The minister called on Egyptian workers abroad to use the improved investment climate in Egypt and to start projects here. "The national projects that Egypt launched in the past four years have contributed to reducing unemployment rates from 14 per cent to 11 per cent," Minister Saafan said. The Jordanian manpower minister said that the biggest challenge at present was developing human resources and training young people for jobs that were in demand in the labour market. On the sidelines of the conference, the Egyptian manpower minister also held a meeting on Tuesday with the Tunisian Minister of Social Affairs Mohamed Trabelsi to discuss the conditions of workers and unemployment in both countries. Minister Saafan said the meeting dealt with Egypt's labour union law which would contribute to stabilising the Egyptian labour climate. The Tunisian minister outlined to Saafan the crises facing Tunisian labour and said that Tunisia was passing through a transitional period which offered positive indications that the crises would be overcome.