Arroyo urges fresh grads to 'go south'

LUCENA (Philippines) - Adventurous fresh graduates can seek their fortunes in insurgency-plagued Mindanao, President Gloria Arroyo said.
'If we want to stop the war in Mindanao, we need more development, and there will be more job opportunities in Mindanao for the more adventurous of our graduates this year,' she told members of the graduating class of the Enverga University during the school's 55th commencement exercises.

She admitted that the unemployment rate, at 10.3 per cent, was 'still high', especially in Metro Manila.
'That is a lot. But we hope that in the next one to three years, we could bring this down,' she said.
She added that the government still needed to create more jobs for 2.4 million Filipinos until 2004.
It was not the policy of the government to export labour, but if there is demand, those who would want to work abroad will have to be screened, she said.
She also cited the job prospects offered by information and communication technology (ICT).

'We have the competitive edge on ICT. The Filipino workers rank No 1 in the world in the field of ICT today.'
She added that job opportunities were present in the tourism industry as well. --Philippine Daily Inquirer/Asia News Network

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