Zain, WEF to create 100,000 jobs by 2017

Job for all 

DT News Network

Manama 

Zain Group, a leading innovator in mobile telecom in eight markets across the Middle East and Africa, announces its successful participation as a Strategic Partner Associate at this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) that took place on Jordan’s Dead Sea, May 21 to 23. 

This year’s WEF event was held with the full support and presence of Their Majesties King Abdullah II and Queen Rania, convening over 800 key leaders from government, business, and civil society to support a comprehensive and forward-looking vision for prosperity and peace across the MENA region. Senior executives from Zain, including Group CEO, Scott Gegenheimer; Zain Jordan CEO, Ahmed Al Hanandeh; Zain Group Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer, Emre Gurkan; and Zain Group Head of Sustainability and Social Responsibility, Jennifer Suleiman represented the company and participated in group and panel discussions over the three-day event.

One of the most significant outputs of the three-day event was the WEF’s Regional Business Council for MENA call for action of a “New Vision for Arab Employment Initiative” that sawthe commitment by nine founding partners, one of which was Zain Group, to scaling their corporate initiatives and creating wholly new initiatives aimed at closing the skills gap in the region. 

The initiative involves investing in the continuous learning, training and job-readiness of the region’s youth, through collaborations between businesses and with education institutions, civil society, and governments, to help education systems keep up with the needs of the labor market. The call of action’s overall objective is to equip 100,000 people for job readiness in the MENA region by 2017.

Commenting in a blog on the WEF’s official website, Zain Group CEO Scott Gegenheimer said, “As the leader of a prominent regional telecommunications company, I recognize the value of moving beyond a traditional understanding of business growth that is strictly profit-centric towards sustainable notions of growth that