Karak Mayor Mohammad Maytah on Saturday suggested that the underdeveloped southern city be turned into a Comprehensive Developmental Zone to create jobs and stop its youth from migrating to the capital and other cities.
He told Petra in an interview that Karak had one of the Kingdom's highest rates of unemployment and poverty with no development projects launched, prompting the youth to seek jobs in Amman and other cities across the country.
Maytah said his municipality had, in cooperation with local organisations, repeatedly presented blueprints and studies to transform the governorate into a developmental zone to employ skilled manpower and create an investment climate to improve the local economy.
He warned that in addition to its developmental impact, a delay in job-generating projects would have social as well as behavioral effects as it feeds extremism and drives the young generation towards crime.