They both believe that if jobs abounded in these regions and the youth were gainfully employed, the motivation to travel out to seek greener pastures would reduce.

“One of the key issues for which Ghana would continue to encourage Italy to rally the European Union and work hard at is the need to support troubled countries such as Libya to be able to build a stable government,” Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama urged at a dinner he held in honor of Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi who was in the West African country Monday and Tuesday on official visit.
Mahama insisted; “Developing and troubled countries must be supported by development partners to build industries aimed at creating employment for young people in order to stem the regular migrant flow into Western Europe.”
The president called for projects to be put in for enhancing skills development amongst young people in Africa.
During his official visit to Italy, July last year, the Ghanaian President, threw an invitation to Prime Minister Renzi to pay a reciprocal visit to Ghana.
“I am delighted Mr. Prime Minister that six months after that meeting in Rome, you are in Accra to see through the consolidation of our common positions and the key roadmaps to what we discussed while I was in Rome. Our discussions tonight have been far reaching and the bilateral issues have been well positioned,” Mahama stated.
He commended highly the government of Italy for its leadership role which culminated in the Valletta Summit on Migration, November last year to strengthen cooperation and address the current challenges as well as opportunities of migration.
Rezin who climaxed his two day visit with an address to Ghana’s parliament on Tuesday stressed that the problem of migration was not for one country to solve but the whole world must come together to deal with it.
“We need a new vision for the world. We need a new vision focused on the ability and the capacity to invest in a new generation of a new responsibility. But at the same time, we know and you know that the only way to stop human trafficking is work together, and possibly create jobs here; give opportunities to the people and together fight against the terrible message,” Renzi urged.
Young Information Technology entrepreneur and international relations watcher, Bright Simons of mPedigree however considered it interesting that the Prime Minister of Italy should be discussing job creation with the President of Ghana.
“Both countries are confronted with a youth unemployment crisis of daunting proportions, though for different structural reasons. Officially, youth employment is higher in Italy (at nearly 45 percent ) than Ghana (26 percent), though many of Ghana’s young people officially classed as employed are in underpaid, sometimes informal, jobs,” he observed in a comment to Xinhua.
In Italy’s case, Simons said the cause is anemic growth, while in Ghana’s case it is due to growth coming from the highly informal service sector, pointing out that neither government in either country can directly create sustainable jobs, otherwise they would have done so already.
“But more to the point, Italy is not in a position to spur job creation in Ghana or Africa, nor indeed is the EU. What is important is to enhance trade cooperation between the two continents in order to boost the competitiveness of the private sectors in both regions, which should lead to structurally sound growth, and then jobs,” the young entrepreneur maintained. Enditem.
Source: Xinhua