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."