Govt has to create 1.5m jobs every year for 38 years to absorb youth: UNDP official

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UN agency launches programme in KP to bring stability through economic uplift

PESHAWAR: Pakistan has to create 1.5 million jobs every year for the next 38 years, if it tends to absorb the youth coming to the job market in the country every year as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has launched Suppliers Development Programme (SDP) to bring stability through economic development in conflict-affected Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and other parts of the country.
This was informed by the out-going country chief of the UNDP Marc-André Franche, while addressing the launching ceremony of the SDP here on Thursday. The SDP is relatively a new development project aimed at improving productivity, efficiency, and product delivery of small and medium scale enterprises and in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The UNDP is carrying out the initiative in collaboration with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Economic Zones Development and Management Company (KPEZDMC) and Small and Medium Enterprises Authority (SMEDA) to support SMEs. Consultants are trained to work with a value chain comprising a leading company and 6-10 suppliers under the SDP. They apply a specially designed methodology to improve the competitiveness of suppliers to meet the quality, quantity, standards, and delivery time of the products being supplied to the lead company. Eventually, this low-cost model will be permanently embedded into a government or private sector entity.
Marc-André added that the SDP was part of UNDP’s larger Khyber Pakhtunkhwa economic initiative to boosting economic development in the province by creating jobs, increasing the competitiveness of SMEs, and nurturing young entrepreneurs.
The UNDP country director also acknowledged that it was a concept they brought in from abroad, but he had seen it working well in other parts of the world. However, he said that Pakistan was the first country in South Asia to replicate the SDP model based on the assumption that marginalised groups like youth and women could play dynamic roles in building a prosperous society.
Marc-André Franche said, “SDP is in line with UNDP’s larger objective of bringing stability through economic development in conflict-affected places.”
He said that it was of paramount importance to Pakistan in the given situation and expressed the confidence that the SDP would go a long way in generating employment in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He said Pakistan had to create 1.5 million jobs every year for the next 38 years, if it sought to absorb the youth coming to the job market every year. “Pakistan needs to create opportunities of quality jobs, not the openings for jobs like, chawkidars,” he said and added that the SDP would also contribute towards this objective.
Marc-André also referred to the political setup in the province and said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was voted to power in the hope to create jobs for youth in the province.
Speaking on the occasion, Provincial Minister for Labour and Mineral Development Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli said the provincial government was committed to creating a conducive environment for employment and sustainable development.
She added that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had a vast potential of rapid economic growth, besides, rich mineral resources that could help ensure economic sustainability.
The minister said the UNDP support through SDP would help bring sustainability in the industrial sector by giving it technical assistance to improve its productivity.
Farah Hamid Khan, Secretary of Industries; Zafar Ali Shah, Planning and Development Secretary, and Iqbal Khattak, provincial chief, SMEDA were also among those who spoke on the occasion.