MINISTER: WE WILL KEEP OUR PROMISE ABOUT 200,000 NEW JOBS

ZAGREB, Jan 10 (Hina) - Croatia's Public Works, Reconstruction and Construction Minister Radimir Cacic said on Thursday the government would keep its promise about 200,000 new jobs. The minister made the statement at today's government session during a debate on an employment stimulation programme, presenting a set of data. Cacic claims that only the uninformed can find it irrational that despite new jobs, the unemployment figures remain the same. The reason for this, he says, is that people who did not do so before are now registering with employment bureaus. To support his claim, Cacic said unemployment figures would rise to around 500,000 or 600,000 if all housewives decided to register with the bureaus. Mathematics is mathematics, Cacic said, adding he was fed up with "nonsensical estimates" coming both from the Opposition and the media. The criterion for determining unemployment figures is not the number of people registered with employment bureaus but the number of newly created jobs, he said, adding that in 1999 employers announced 125,000 vacancies and employed 105,000 workers. One year later, there were 150,000 vacancies and 120,000 people found employment, whereas last year, there were 200,000 vacancies and 150,000 people were employed, he said. Cacic said he was proud to remind that his party (Croatian People's Party, HNS) had promised 200,000 new jobs during the election campaign two years ago. The government will implement that programme, Cacic said, supporting his claim with data saying the number of new jobs in 2000 was by 15,000 higher than the year before and in 2001 by 45,000 higher than in 2000. The minister announced that 60,000 to 65,000 new jobs would be opened. (hina) rml