Brunei launches program to curb unemployment

Brunei launches program to curb unemployment

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (AFP): Brunei marked its national day on Friday with an intensified campaign against worsening unemployment in the oil-dependent kingdom known for lavish cradle-to-grave welfare policies.

Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah warned that growing numbers of graduates could not find jobs and announced the launch of a training program funded by the government, which already employs three-quarters of the local work force.

He portrayed the unemployment problem as an opportunity to reduce the Southeast Asian nation's heavy dependence on foreign manpower.

"This problem is becoming more pronounced, given the changing times and the sluggishness in many economies around the world," he said in a televised speech to his 335,000 subjects late Thursday.

Unemployment is officially estimated at around six percent but a 1999 government economic report found that 25 percent of all school leavers between 1992 and 2001 may not be able to secure jobs.

The sultan announced the creation of a training program under which jobless graduates and diploma holders will be attached as apprentices to state-owned corporations and private companies, with an allowance provided by the government.

"This step is taken as an immediate measure by the government to address the problem of unemployment among those unemployed graduates and (diploma) holders," he said. "It also serves to help the private sector in getting quality human resources from within the country and gradually reducing our dependence on foreign manpower."

Tens of thousands of Filipinos, Malaysians, Indonesians, Indians and other foreign workers power the kingdom's service sector, while oilmen from around the world help run the petroleum industry.

Brunei, which gained independence from Britain in 1984, is one of the last absolute monarchies. It is the envy of many countries with its free health care and education, coupled with zero income tax.

The sultan himself was once reputed to be the world's richest man, before the emergence of new-economy tycoons such as Bill Gates.

But with oil and gas reserves expected to dry up in a few decades, Brunei is now striving to diversify its economy by promoting new industries and the services sector, and is aiming to become an Islamic financial center.

With a per capita gross domestic product estimated at more than US$17,000 in 1998, Brunei is the second wealthiest Southeast Asian nation after Singapore, but a top-level economic council has described the situation as "increasingly unsustainable" and called for sweeping reforms.

Foreign reserves are being eroded by a chronic budget deficit and the economy was hit by the 1997 Asian economic crisis and the collapse of a conglomerate once headed by the sultan's younger brother Prince Jefri.

In his national day speech, the sultan said "there can be few nations and people who are without problems." "We are no exception, as problems will continue to exist in life," he said, adding that "one of the most common problems in the world today is that of unemployment."

He said unemployment "represents the antithesis to a progressive society" but "its presence should not weaken society."

"It has to be overcome, or at least controlled, so that in a reasonable period of time, our country will be rid of it."

The sultan said he hoped the nation would "move progressively forward" and called for cooperation by all sections of society, saying "independence would be a disappointment if we choose only to watch from the sidelines."