“For example, for the 63 industrialization companies (…) we have the intention to create 62,965 jobs, only with 63 companies that are already systematized as a national government,” said the Minister of Labor, Verónica Navia, during an interview with the Bolivian TV channel Space Facts Count.
He explained that these new industries will be added to those planned by the Ministry of Rural Development, the Bolivian Fiscal Petroleum Fields (YPFB) and the Ministry of Hydrocarbons.
He emphasized that Bolivia has an economic model that is unique in the world and creates jobs, citing its four pillars: the private sector, the state economy, the social cooperative and the community economy.
Navia reported that the productive projects financed with the Competitive Fund for Productive Public Investments of the Ministry of Development Planning in collaboration with local governments will create 106,937 indirect jobs and 6,644 direct jobs.
There are a large number of employees among the 2,919 registered cooperatives in manufacturing, agriculture, mining, transportation and other sectors.
He noted that some that are considered large have between two thousand and three thousand employees.
Regarding the community economy, he emphasized that by 2023, 50,161 families will be registered to directly benefit from agricultural work under the Rural Alliances Program II.
He assumes that the Rural Alliances Program III is already being implemented, with 1,461 alliances approved and another 1,347 in the evaluation and approval process.
“So we are talking about a productive social community economic model that has not only worked because poverty rates have fallen, jobs have been created and income levels have improved,” he explained emphatically, “but we have also maintained promising economic growth rates in the region. “, despite the adverse conditions.”
Navia added that in this context, the unemployment rate in Bolivia is below 3.6 percentage points and is the lowest in South America.
“(…) When we talk about employment and unemployment, we are talking about self-employment and dependent work,” the authority clarified and emphasized that the registration of private companies is also increasing.
Regarding government and private employment, he recalled that in 2019, according to data from the Ministry of Labor's Office of Virtual Procedures, there were a record 521,789 workers, of which about 100,000 were laid off during the Covid pandemic. 19 in 2020-2021.
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