Government to create one million jobs in collaboration with private sector

KATHMANDU: The government has started the process to create one million new jobs in the current fiscal year. The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies (MoICS) has initiated the necessary process to create those jobs in collaboration with the private sector.

According to the ministry, the process of providing training to the youths in the industries has been started. It is usually Indian and other foreign nationals working in our industries at present.

The government is trying to replace the foreign workers with Nepalese workers and is also trying to increase the efficiency of Nepalese workers, according to Chandra Ghimire, secretary at MoICS. There is still a huge shortage of workers in the industrial sector. “The government and the private sector are working together to manage this shortage,” he added.

“The ministry has already held discussions with the industrialists on how to prepare the required number of workers in those industries. It has also held discussions about the kind of workers that the industries require,” Ghimire stated. “The industries themselves will be providing the required training to the workers so that they can develop the required skilled manpower for the related work,” he added.

He also said that the ministry has held necessary discussions with the Association of Commodity and Industrialist, an umbrella organization of private sector.

During the training period, the government will be providing the minimum expenses needed for the youths. For this, the government has allocated Rs one billion from the current year’s budget.

The government has also initiated discussions with the private sector to fulfill the scarcity of the required workers in the industries by utilizing the Nepalese youths. The government has assured to provide training to 8 to 1 million youths and also guarantee employment.

“If this program is successful, we can provide employment opportunity to a good number of Nepalese youths in a year. This opportunity will benefit those who are going for foreign employment,” said Ghimire, adding, “On one hand, the required skilled manpower will be produced and on the other hand, Nepalese youths will also get employment opportunities.’

The ministry has also formulated the procedures for the implementation of the program. It is also holding discussions with the private sector’s umbrella organization. Similarly, MoICS has already started discussions with big industrialists. It has started discussions with various commodity associations and institutions. It has begun the process of utilizing Nepalese youths in the cement, steel and hotel sectors, among others.

At present, there are Indian workers in many sectors including cement, steel, shoes/slippers, hotels and bricks manufacturing. For instance, there are currently 1,100 brick factories in operation across the country. About 300,000 workers are working in these factories and among them about 70 percent or more than 210,000 are Indian workers. The situation is similar in the country’s large, medium and small-scale industries.

“Nepalese do not have the required skills and that is one reason why we have been compelled to bring in foreign workers,” said Satish Kumar More, president of the Confederation of Nepalese Industries.

“Even now, it is not possible to run an industry here without bringing in technical manpower from India. It is our compulsion to bring workers from India,” said industrialist Shashikant Agrawal. “If we can produce skilled manpower in Nepal, the industrialists will not have to bring in workers from outside by providing expensive facilities to foreign workers,” he added.