We didn't provide enough jobs to our youngsters: Finance minister

New finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Wednesday said the government will support the private sector to create job opportunities in the next five years, reports UNB.

"We shall be supporting the private sector industries ... the manufacturing sector, the export sector and also our service sector which will result in automatic job creation opportunities," the minister said while addressing a deal signing ceremony at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in the city.

At the event, a $250 million financing agreement for 'First Programmatic Jobs Development Policy Credit' was signed between the World Bank and the Economic Relations Division (ERD) of the finance ministry.

The finance minister said Bangladesh made enough progress in every field except the job creation. “We didn't provide enough jobs to our youngsters.”

"We didn't have basic inputs or basic raw materials for creation of jobs ... we couldn't provide enough power and gas to set up manufacturing facilities. The manufacturing facilities in the last five years were almost stagnant for one reason - we didn't have enough power. Now, the problem of power is over," he said.

Mustafa Kamal said prime minister Sheikh Hasina in the Awami League's election manifesto also mentioned that she wants to concentrate much on the creation of jobs for the youngsters.

Noting that the country's economy will surely experience bigger progress in the coming years, he said Bangladesh will achieve 8.25 per cent GDP growth in the current fiscal year.

The finance minister said now Bangladesh is the 41st largest economy in the world and it will be the 24th largest one by 2032.

Addressing the function, Qimiao Fan, World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal, said Bangladesh has made tremendous progress in the last two decades because of rapid growth, and significant improvement was seen in different social indices.

"However, in spite of all the progress, the availability of jobs has remained as the main challenge for the country," he said, adding that not enough jobs were created though more than two million youths enter the job market every year.

Most of the available jobs are not very high quality ones, Qimiao Fan added.

ERD secretary Monowar Ahmed and finance secretary Abdur Rouf Talukder, among others, also spoke on the occasion.