The budget envisages that employment opportunities for about 700,000 people would be created during the next fiscal year apart from providing employments for 49 lakh man-months for the hardcore poor.

"Our election manifesto specifies the main elements of our policy for employment generation. We'll create employment opportunities in agriculture and rural sectors," Finance Minister AMA Muhith said in his budget speech yesterday.

He said construction of labour intensive infrastructures will get top priorities while the government would strengthen self-employment opportunities through micro-credit programmes. "We shall not close any industrial or commercial enterprise until alternative arrangements have been made for the displaced workers."

According to BBS estimates, the total labour force in our country is 5 crore, out of which only 20 lakh are employed in the public sector.

Every year a similar number of labour force enters our labour market. Employment generation is, therefore, high on our development agenda.

"In the proposed budget, we're attaching the highest priority to employment generation for the hardcore poor living in acute poverty-prone areas."

In FY 2008-09, in order to protect the purchasing power of the rural poor from sliding down, a 100-Day Employment Generation Programme was launched, and was partially implemented.

Having reviewed the problems and policy weaknesses of that programme during implementation stage, "we're proposing to implement a changed programme titled Employment Generation for the Hardcore Poor in FY 2009-10. This'll create employments for 49 lakh man-months."

Test Relief (TR), Food for Work (FFW), and such other programmes being implemented from the revenue budget will create employments of 2.87 crore man months, which is 10 per cent (27.3 lakh man-months) more than that of the revised budget of FY 2008-09.

Under the ADP, employment for 264.8 lakh man-months of work will be created, which is 23.2 per cent (49.76 lakh man-months) more than that of the revised budget of FY 2008-09.

In FY 2009-10, an additional employment of 77 lakh (6.4 lakh for the whole year) man-months will be created under non-development and development budget over that of the previous year.

According to BBS data (compiled in 2005-06), 21 lakh people above the age of 15 years are unemployed. In the next fiscal year, employment opportunities for 32.57 per cent of this unemployed population will be created.

- UNB, Dhaka