Govt Set Two Pct Enterepreneur Target

Semarang, C Java, Sept 15 (Antara) - The government has set itself a target to increase the number of entrepreneurs this year from 1.56 percent of the population to 2 percent, a senior official said. "The two percent increase is set to meet the minimal requirement for a successful economic development towards a state prosperity," Director General of Manpower Development and Placement Reyna Usman said. The director general made the statement when opening the National Unemployment Handling Movement 2014 in Semarang on Sunday. She said that increasing the number of entrepreneurs to two percent of the population was also expected to help reduce the number of young (age between 16 and 18) unemployed people which at present reached 63.8 million. According to data at the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS), open unemployment declined by 263 thousand from 7.41 million people in August 2013 to 7.15 million in February 2014. Reyna said that although the number of unemployed people had decreased, yet there was still a number of manpower problems that needed to be solved. The problems included the high rate of unemployment among educated jobseekers, increase in the number of global unemployment and the readiness to face the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). "Indonesia can no longer be able to close trade in the AEC era. We have to be ready and have to make preparations," she said.