Govt unveils umbrella employment policy

KATHMANDU:

The government has unveiled an umbrella employment policy with an aim to create employment

opportunities within the country. It comes amid a backdrop whereby the country needs to create employment for 500,000 individuals each year.

Agriculture, hydropower, tourism, manufacturing, construction and information technology (IT) are some of the

prime sectors in which the National Employment Policy 2015, has targeted to create jobs. The policy has talked of career counselling projects, providing skill trainings to poor for free, and provision of venture capital fund under public-private-partnership (PPP) to provide seed money for entrepreneurship development.

Even as the policy has focused on creating jobs in the local market, it also has plans to provide skill development training to outbound workers. Due to lack of employment opportunities

in the domestic labour market, more than 1,500 individuals are leaving the country every day for work to various international labour destinations.

It is estimated that around 70 per cent of total population of the country are youth who are under the age of 35 and a majority of them are being compelled to seek foreign employment. The National Youth Policy 2010 has defined people aged between 16-40 years as youth and it comprises 40 per cent of country’s total population.

“As foreign employment is not the ultimate solution, the policy has basically focused on creating employment in different sectors and skill development,” said Buddhi Bahadur Khadka, spokesperson of the Ministry of Labour and Employment (MoLE). He added that priority would be given to projects that focus on creating jobs for the youth.

The National Census 2011 had stated that the country has a labour force of 15.91 million and is growing by 2.4 per cent annually. Based on the policy, the government plans to provide skill training to the workforce as per the demand of local and international labour markets.

Khadka said that each year an estimated 100,000 people are getting skill training from agencies related to the government, private sector and other agencies. However, the labour market is facing shortage of skilled workers. The policy also has a plan to establish an institutional mechanism that will help link skills and expertise of returnee migrant workers with the local requirement.

With the policy already being endorsed by the Cabinet, all the government agencies concerned will be required to prepare their strategies and work plans and implement them based on the umbrella policy. To create employment, the government, in the policy, has talked of attracting foreign direct investment in energy, infrastructure, tourism, manufacturing and IT. And, investors helping create jobs will be entitled to receive incentives.

Besides making the visa process easy, the policy has planned of honouring investors based on the job opportunities they create in the domestic labour market. The proportion of urban unemployment in the domestic labour market is increasing, underlining the need for more jobs that can also incorporate females.

As of now, agriculture has been the major sector by providing employment to 74 per cent of the total labour force. However, the sector’s contribution in the national GDP is at a mere 34.4 per cent compared to the service sector’s contribution of 53.2 per cent. MoLE officials said that as a majority are involved in agriculture, the policy has a target to

promote lease and commercial farming that will help create jobs at the local level.The policy’s implementation status will be evaluated each year and will be updated at an interval of every five years.

Key points

• Government to run career counselling project

• Skill development training for poor people free of cost

• Institutional provision to link skill and expertise of returnee migrant workers

• Transformation of informal sector workers to formal

• Production of capable workforce through knowledge and skill based training

• Venture capital fund for rural youths for entrepreneurship development

• Youth Employment Promotion Centres at local level

• Skill training aimed at foreign employment aspirants

Source: THT