Partnerships key to improving labour market, says expert
Dr Duvvuri Subarao, the former governor of Reserve Bank of India.
Kampala- Joint investments through Public Private Partnership (PPP) by both government and private sector are key to improving labour markets in developing countries, former governor of Reserve Bank of India has said.
Speaking at the 23rd Joseph Mubiru Memorial lecture in Kampala early in the week, Dr Duvvuri Subarao said neither government nor the private sector can independently invest in skilling labour because of constant labour mobility.
“The private sector can’t invest in reviving skills for someone to learn and go, and someone else poaches them,” he said.
“The government too cannot do it because it is a bad educator. So you need a PPP model to build skills in the country,” he added.
The economist further said skills shortage is a big challenge not just in India but also in Uganda, which have a high rate of population growth.
As a civil servant, Dr Duvvuri said in order to generate jobs, there is need to change labour laws that will lower production costs for investors.
On productive investment and job creation, he said manufacturing is very important because it creates more jobs for millions of people.
“Jobs are not going to come from infrastructure, jobs are not going to come from the service sector either; jobs have to be found in the manufacturing sector,” he said.
The economist further said just like India, Uganda has a high rate of population growth which is good in some way.
“If you have a large population, you have a large working population. And that population will work, earn, consume, save. That saving will go into investment and will generate growth,” he observed.
On promoting local products,
Dr Duvvuri said the Indian government has invested a lot in promoting the “Make India campaign” as a concept to promote India’s products, adding that Uganda needs to promote the “Build Uganda Buy Uganda” concept initiated by the Private Sector Foundation, Uganda.
