Successive governments have been weak in reducing unemployment rates - NUP

02 May 2019
Successive governments have been weak in reducing unemployment rates - NUP
Employees work at a garment factory in Shwe Pyi Thar, Yangon. Photo: Nyein Chan Naing/EPA

National Unity Party (NUP) said on the occasion of International Workers’ Day that successive governments had weaknesses in reducing unemployment though the constitution has provision for doing so.

In a message sent by Chairman Than Tin to International Workers’ Day ceremony on May 1, NUP party Yangon Region Secretary Chit Khaing read the message which says, “Though in Chapter 1 article 31 of 2008 Constitution stipulates that ‘The Union shall, to the extent possible, assist to reduce unemployment among the people’, we found that the successive governments had weaknesses in implementing this work.”

According to the NUP, job opportunities in Myanmar are currently very low and over 2 million people registered with Ministry of Labour during two-year period from April 2016 to February 2018 but only over 300,000 or nearly 400,000 had got employment in this period.

NUP General Secretary Thein Tun said that because of lack of job opportunities in the country many people left for employment in foreign countries as migrant workers.

“So human resources in the country have been reduced. We need to create good political and economic environments for attracting domestic and foreign investments for the sake of creating more job opportunities for our people,” he added.

Currently most Myanmar migrant workers are in Thailand, Singapore, Japan and Korea. In Thailand alone nearly 4 million Myanmar migrant work there.