June 15, 1999
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| June 15, 1999 | atimes.com | |
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| Japan Economy Japan plans 500bn yen extra budget to boost economy TOKYO - The Japanese government will draft a supplementary budget for fiscal 1999 which provides for the spending of around 500 billion yen on measures to combat unemployment and promote industrial competitiveness, Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said. The policy package, including programs designed to create more than 700,000 new jobs, was formally adopted by the government earlier on June 11. Preparations are already underway so that a special budget bill will be ready for presentation during the extraordinary Diet session expected to convene in late September. With its new job creation initiative, the government intends to take a much more hands-on approach than in the past. Labor Minister Akira Amari said 200 billion yen of the total is slated for job creation programs to be organized by the central and local governments. A further 100 billion yen will be used to encourage firms in high-growth industries to expand their payrolls sooner than planned. The remaining 200 billion yen will be utilized to cope with Japan's declining birth rate by building facilities and making other efforts to create an environment more conducive to raising children. Funds will be made available over two years for directly run government programs such as those covering the temporary employment of computer or foreign-language instructors at public schools. Plans also call for entrusting private companies with digitization of government publications. These measures are expected to generate a total of more than 300,000 new jobs. For the private sector, the government will extend financial assistance to companies in growing industries so they can hire people fired from their previous jobs. For this purpose, the government will expand the 60 billion yen special job creation fund established at the end of last year. This step is designed to create 150,000 jobs. (Asia Pulse/Nikkei) | |||||||||
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