Kathmandu. With the support of the World Bank, a program has been started to expand employment services in Nepal. For this, the World Bank is going to provide about 14 billion rupees. The programme named ‘Transformation Initiative Project for Youth Employment’ is going to be associated with the Prime Minister’s Employment Program.

According to the World Bank, the project aims to improve the results of the labor market through the creation of employment opportunities, skill and capacity building and expansion of employment-oriented services to the economically disadvantaged unemployed youth with the loan assistance of the World Bank to promote internal employment.

Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security Rameshwor Raya Yadav and World Bank National Director for Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka Faris Hadad-Zervos inaugurated the project on Monday.

According to the World Bank, the total amount of this project, which will be implemented for the next four years under the Prime Minister’s Employment Program, will be 120 million US dollars (equivalent to about 14 billion rupees). Speaking on the occasion, Minister Yadav said nepal’s labour market has been affected due to the contraction in the employment sector due to covid-19 pandemic and a large number of workers have lost their jobs.

In this situation, result-oriented implementation of the project from all three levels is necessary, he added. He said the project aims to provide employment to the unemployed by expanding employment opportunities in the domestic labour market.

Apart from this, work will also be done on getting basic information about the labor market. According to him, plans are being made to upgrade the employment management information system to introduce an automated system with labor information bank by integrating the personal details, knowledge, skills and experience of the unemployed people, potential areas of employment and demand and supply side of the labor market.

On the occasion, World Bank National Director Hadad Zervos expressed the belief that the project would provide employment to about 75,000 poor unemployed youths at social and economic risk in the current fiscal year in line with the World Bank’s policy of mitigating the impact of COVID-19.

He said that through this program, 100 days’ wages will be provided by mobilizing for the maintenance and upgradation of public infrastructure. Explaining the World Bank’s support strategy, Hadad Zervos said that the bank is ready to cooperate with the government, development partners and the private sector to help the nepali people living poor and risky lives.

Signed between the Government of Nepal (Ministry of Finance) and the World Bank in November 2019, about 90 percent of the total amount will be spent on employment generation through maintenance and upgradation of public infrastructure at the local level. Of these, 100,000 unemployed youths will be provided employment. As per the priority given to social inclusion by the project, 60 percent of the total beneficiaries will be women.