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| Saturday, 20 March 2004 |
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Politics | |
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| A UNF Govt will create 100,000 jobs - PM Daya Perera reporting from Southern Province Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe announced that his Government will implement a program to create 100,000 jobs in collaboration with the private sector after winning the forthcoming general election. "This program was to be launched in March this year, but it could not be implemented due to the sudden election. But we will initiate this program in July this year after winning the forthcoming election, told the Premier addressing election rallies held in Baddegama, Ratgama, Akuressa and Weligama. He stressed that just providing jobs in the Government sector would not help to solve the country's unemployment problem. Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said there are around 650,000 unemployed persons in the country and within the next decade, this figure will rise to 1.3 million. " At least three million employment opportunities should be created within the next decade to solve this severe crisis," he added. "If we are to reach this target, we have to ensure that the economy is improved at the rate of eight per cent for at least 10 - 15 years. Every sector of the economy should also be upgraded and production should be increased to generate employment," he said. "The Freedom Alliance has no clear policies to solve this raging issue. They have failed to explain how the Alliance was going to find a durable solution to this issue. It has given only promises, but no jobs." "In this context, the Alliance has pledged to give only 25,000 jobs. How is the Alliance going to resolve the unemployment crisis," the Prime Minister asked. Criticising the policy statement of the Alliance, Wickremesinghe said it has not focused on the training in the industrial sector. "Proper vocational training is necessary to generate employment and solve this issue.The private sector involvement is also necessary to solve the unemployment issue," he said. The Prime said his Government had paid attention to generate more employment by improving every sector of the economy - industrial, garment, construction, tourism etc. He said his Government followed strict fiscal discipline and financial measures to rebuild the country's devastated economy during the last two years." We laid a firm foundation to rebuild the economy. We have already prepared plans to develop every sector of the economy and to attract more foreign investment and aid. At a time like that, this sudden election was called as the Alliance wanted to disrupt the development process initiated by the UNF Government." The Premier urged the people to vote for the UNF to defeat both the PA and JVP and dawn a prosperous future. "I call on you to vote for the UNF to form a stable Government to establish an economy which could generate employment," he said. |
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