AMMAN - The Arab Association for Social Security represented by the Association’s President, Dr. Mohammad Karkai, and the Arab Labor Organization, represented by the Organization’s Director General, Mr. Fayez Al Mutairi, have both honored HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, founder and chairman of Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Global (TAG.Global), in recognition of his valuable contributions to various communitiesin the fields of knowledge and innovation. The honoring came during the National Seminar on ‘The Diversity of Financing Sources and Investment Opportunities in the Social Insurance Corporations to Strengthen Social Protection Programs’.

On this occasion, Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh expressed his pride and gratitude to the Association and Organization for this honor, highlighting the importance of the seminar and the role the insurance institutions play in actively providing insurance protection.

Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh stated that the optimal investment is in human capital, giving several recommendations such as increasing the eligibility age for social security pension, and protecting employees' insurance rights once they move from one country to another.

He advocated the importance of post-retirement employment; especially for military retirees who completed their military duty at an early age, noting that this goes in line with the recommendation of His Majesty King Abdullah II to establish a rehabilitation system for retired military personnel.

For his part, Dr. Karkai urged Arab social security and social insurance institutions to join the Organization and become active members to contribute to achieving the desired goals and promoting joint Arab action. He also emphasized that the current economic indicators show a significant slowing in wage growth, higher inflation rates, and declining levels of return on investment in various financial assets.

For his part Mr. Al Mutairi affirmed that social security systems in many Arab countries encounter many challenges; some are related to specific categories such as retirees, women, and people with disabilities, while others are associated with coverage and financial imbalances that threaten the sustainability of the social insurance system, due, he further explained, to the high cost of pension expenditure to beneficiaries against the decline in resources caused by future demographic variables and low return investments. 

The seminar was attended by representatives from ministries of labor, workers' and employers' organizations, and labor organizations in the Arab world. That is in addition to the Union of Arab Chambers, Arab Trade Union Confederation, and Arab social security and social insurance institutions, as well as the Executive Bureau of Council of Ministers of Labor & Ministry of Social Affairs in GCC States, and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ESCWA).