Council of Ministers discusses private sector employment

Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq (GOV.KRD) – Council of Ministers today held its weekly meeting led by Prime Minister Masrour Barzani.

Opening the meeting, the Council discussed work force organization and means of providing employment opportunities in the private sector in a just and equitable way that increases local employment.

Prime Minister Barzani re-emphasized that a cornerstone of the Ninth Cabinet’s reform agenda is that all efforts should be made to help the youth of the Kurdistan Region have employment opportunities. As such, the government encourages employers to increase employment of locals in line with the government decree that at least 75 percent of the labor force should be local. The Prime Minister added that there should be proper mechanisms available to offer training to young people in all areas of the Kurdistan Region.

Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani noted the importance of existing data and information in this process. He pointed to the newly established Data Center as a crucial resource in assisting with increasing youth employment.

The Minister of Planning then briefed the Council on a draft bill setting out reforms to employment mechanisms in the Kurdistan Region through which more opportunities will be provided to locals, while protecting the rights of foreign workers in the Region.

The Council decided to review all the suggestions made during the session regarding the labor force and to further discuss the process in the Council’s next meeting.

Thereafter, the Minister of Health briefed the Council on means of implementing Law No. 4 of the year 2020, which regulates and lays the groundwork for the investigation of potentially life-threatening medical malpractice in both public and private hospitals.

The Council reiterated the importance of patients’ rights and stressed the centrality of both professionalism in the medical field and the resolution of all problems facing patients.

Finally, the Council discussed the draft of the Food and Medicine Agency in the Kurdistan Region Law, which is a key facet of the Ninth Cabinet’s reform agenda.