KATHMANDU, June 30: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has said modernization of agriculture was imperative to reduce unemployment in the country. Modernization of agriculture creates new jobs, so improvement and commercialization in agriculture is a current need, he added.
Inaugurating the National Labour and Employment Conference 2019 here today, PM Oli said, "Nepal's agriculture is traditional and production is low. So, with modernization, people need to get with agriculture. Agriculture needs to boost industry and trade."
Mentioning that a large number of youths was bound to leave the country for lack of jobs, he urged all concerned to retain youths, creating attractive jobs- dignified work, and proper wage. Employment is not a mere occupying in a work but creating jobs for others too, the PM stressed. According to the PM, the time has come for ensuring jobs to educated people. The educational certificate must be a tool to solve the unemployment problem.
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The government is yearning for development by working together with the opposition. "The country is common, we need to work by collaborating with the opposition," he said, wondering, "The opposition might not have liked the government. But, can't we work together for development?" The government wants to free people from poverty and paucity. "We must not make the future generation face the same difficulty we have. I ensure the utmost positive results during my tenure. I have the resolution for change," PM Oli committed. He believed that the conference would identify problems in the employment sector and recommend a suggestion for the solution.
On the occasion, Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security, Gokarna Bista, said it was a challenging task to make the informal sector formal since a majority of the employment sector was in the informal sector. Stating that the development of technology, climate change, and demographic change had affected the world’s labor market in a new way, Bista underscored the need to move forward in a new day to tackle the growing burgeoning challenges.
According to him, the government had declared to provide employment opportunities to additional 500,000 people in the current fiscal year for which he pressed for collaboration among the local, provincial and federal government as well as the private sector for job creations in the country.
Similarly, Nepali Congress leader and former Minister Ramesh Lekhak opined that if the conference would help identify the prospects of employment opportunities in the country, it would create jobs for those yearning for betterment. Lekhak pressed for promoting domestic employment to replace foreign employment.
He spoke of the need to promote industrialization and attract foreign investment in the country. The leader from the major opposition party said, "Nepali Congress would support every positive program that the government forwards.” Secretary at the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security Mahesh Prasad Dahal said during the two-day conference, discussions would be held on various aspects of employment, Nepali labor market, work culture, entrepreneurship of Nepali youths and development of skills for employment among others.
