Monday, July 26, 2004 Arroyo must target 2M new jobs a year
TO ADDRESS grinding poverty and widespread joblessness in the Philippines during her term, the Arroyo administration must target the creation of two million jobs a year, not just one.
The view was aired by Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) in its presentation Friday before the International Business and Economics Society of the Assumption College in Makati.
Tasked to make an assessment on what in President Arroyo's 10-point Legacy Agenda are doable in the first year, the PCCI head concentrated on the chief executive's top three priorities that address the problem of widespread poverty.
The goals are: to create six to ten million jobs, help three million entrepreneurs, and put to agri-business use one million hectares of farm lands.
Ortiz-Luis outlined three enabling conditions on which programs to achieve those goals take off.
* The administration must have the political will to push urgent reform on economic policy and governance;
* Rally the business sector, civil society and other stakeholders in the economy to do their part in the pursuit of her economic goals;
* Set aside specific amounts for focused programs and set a timetable against which performance is measured.
"If indeed, the government and the private sector can create one million jobs a year in the next six years, they will only be able to absorb new entrants to the labor pool. The target should be closer to two million a year to make a big dent at unemployment and under-employment," he stressed.
The magnitude of the challenge is such that "families whose income average P107 a day, and are still considered very poor, make up 46 out of every 100, or very close to half of our population," the export leader said.
The crux of the matter, he explained, is that, governments have poor records of creating jobs.
Outside of hiring people to work in the already bloated bureaucracy, the only direct jobs involving the government are those hired by contractors winning government projects.
"We know for a fact that creating jobs and expanding wealth are the job of the country's entrepreneurial class, the businessmen," he further said and called on them to play a more pro-active role in the war against poverty.
To help the businessmen do what they do best, creating jobs and wealth, the government must make it easier and cheaper for them to do business in the city.
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