KUALA LUMPUR, April 20 — The Barisan Nasional (BN) administration has created over two million jobs since 2013 and is expected to create a million more through various programmes, its chairman Datuk Seri Najib Razak said today.
The caretaker prime minister said the number of employment opportunities created alone had already surpassed Pakatan Harapan’s pledge to give youths a million jobs if it were to come to power, as unveiled in the latter’s 14th general election manifesto recently.
“We can be proud of our achievements,” Najib told the audience at the 2018 MyApprenticeship programme opening here.
“We have created 2.26 million jobs, which is very close to our target of creating three million jobs in five years.
“And through MyApprenticeship, as many as a million more jobs will be created, which is already far greater than the one million jobs pledged by the Opposition in their manifesto,” he added.
The MyApprenticeship programme launched today is meant to help first-time job seekers get practical training, with the eventual option for employment.
Both BN and PH have made job creation a key pledge in their respective GE14 manifestos in an apparent bid to woo young voters, a key electorate.
Up to a third of the country’s over 17 million electorate are young, first-time voters, and close to half are aged 35 and below.
Job creation was among the 12 key pledges outlined in PH’s manifesto, with the rest touching on economic growth, affordable housing, the abolishment of highway tolls, free education, a minimum wage hike, institutional reform, corruption and an improvement of the quality of public service.
Najib and BN leaders have responded with claims that the cost to implement PH’s pledges would surpass RM1 trillion.
