ALGIERS, May 16, 2009 (KUNA) -- An international conference of contractors kicked off here on Saturday, with Algerian and foreign economists, financiers and professors attending. The conferees are to mull over the rational utilization of economic and trade institutions' human and financial potential, together with the role of small and medium-sized corporations in economic recovery and reduction of joblessness, the Algerian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, the organizer of the gathering, said in a release.

Attracting over 150 economists, professors and specialists from Algeria, Tunisia, Germany, Italy, Spain, France and the U.S., the two-day meeting is mainly meant to embody the integrated relationship between universities and economic milieus, it said. The conferees are also set to devise a scientific mechanism for building a strong relationship between universities and economic institutions on the basis of information exchange, it added. The gathering is expected to come up with a strategy on the rational utilization of human and potential resources on which economic, contracting and productive institutions are based.