Labour Minister Jameel Al Humaidan on Thursday asserted that employment and increasing the income of the national labour force were among the top priorities for the ministry.

The minister met at his office Economic Development Board (EDB) chief executive officer and Tamkeen board chairman Shaikh Mohammed bin Essa Al Khalifa and reviewed ways of enhancing links to achieve their common goals of upgrading the labour force.

They discussed creating more suitable job opportunities through necessary training and rehabilitation programmes that can meet the needs of the kingdom's institutions and companies, foster their professional performance and increase their productivity.

The two sides agreed to set up a National Labour Market Plan involving the Labour Ministry, the Labour Market Regulatory Authority and Tamkeen to ensure better co-ordination regarding performance and programmes and execute the best citizen-oriented developmental schemes in line with the government plan 2014 and the Economic Vision 2030.

They asserted that employment and increasing the income of the national labour force are among the top priorities of the new plan.

The officials also reviewed what has been achieved over the past three years under the Rehabilitation and Employment of University Graduates Project and discussed availing of the ministry and Tamkeen's expertise to help employ about 4,500 university graduates in the private sector in two years.

They also reviewed joint projects to rehabilitate university graduates to enhance their employability.

In this regard, the Labour Minister indicated that his ministry would launch a project aiming to raise the salaries of university graduates working in the private sector to BD400, just like their colleagues in the public sector.-TradeArabia News Service