National Planning Commission (NPC), the apex government body that deals with national development, will take employment generation as one of its major objectives in the coming three year plan. High-ranking officials of NPC told myrepublica.com that the next three year plan, which will go into implementation from coming fiscal year, will focus on creating 450,000 employment opportunities each year to deal with the worsening employment situation of the country.
Along with continuation of Poverty Reduction Strategic Paper (PRSP) and reorientation to achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the next plan will also adopt employment centric plan that will focus on employment generation at both central and local level, said Dr Pushkar Bajracharya, member of the NPC. He further informed that an advisory committee led by vice chairman of NPC has already started preliminary tasks for the formulation of the new plan.
It has been reckoned that around 350,000 new work forces enter into the job market each year and around 200,000 of them are finding jobs in foreign countries. Finding jobs for fresh 150,000 youths that enter the employment market is one of the major problems that the next plan aims to deal with, said Bajracharya.
The Labor Survey conducted last year had showed 49 percent of urban and 26.9 percent of rural population was underutilized, which means they are not getting sufficient works. It also showed that unemployment has gone up to 2.1 percent of the total population from 1.8 percent in 1998/99.
Bajracharya said that in order to generate additional employment opportunities, the state will have to invest at least Rs 400 billion each year during the plan period, though detail study on the required investment is still to be worked out. Of the estimated amount, private sector will have to bear a major chunk, covering some 60 percent, he added.
The NPC member also said, "I am optimistic that there will be no major problem in attracting the said amount from private sector if the state creates investment friendly environment and arrange essential infrastructures like power and road network."
Bajracharya also said that the NPC was also working on three-point strategy to enhance and reposition its role in national development. He said that strengthening secretariat of NPC, implementation of a new human resource policy and adopting a new periodic plan strategy in the upcoming federal structure are some of the major strategies that the NPC is considering.
Job creation major agenda in next 3-year plan
