Agra, Jan 28 : Taking the theme of employment generation forward, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma has said that there is a serious challenge for policy makers to provide enough jobs in the manufacturing and services industry to absorb these people and to impart adequate skill sets to make them employable.

Speaking during the inaugural session - "Global Partnerships for Enduring Growth" here yesterday, Sharma said that 200 million young people will enter work force in coming years and National Manufacturing Policy is the one of the key instrumentalities for dealing with this challenge as it will add 100 million jobs by taking the share of manufacturing to 25 per cent in next decade.

He also highlighted the unprecedented crisis of unemployment, which is being faced by countries world over.

"Based on the current trends, there would be an estimated shortage of 40 million skilled workers and 45 million semi-skilled workers globally within this decade. Countries like India will see 200 million additional job seekers in the next 10 years as they shift from the rural economy towards urban industrial activity," said Sharma.

He also said that the government will continue its emphasis on imparting skills to the youth to reap the demographic dividend of a largely young population.

Sharma further said that the since the onset of the global financial crisis four years ago, the global economy even today continues to struggle with the unabated impact in its aftermath.

Expressing concern over the continued volatility in capital flows and wobbly recovery in the major markets, Sharma said that to get out of the crisis situation, countries world over have to engage with one another in a proactive manner.

"India has remained conscious of this process of economic integration and even in the peak of the economic crisis, we stepped out and engaged with the rest of the world and in the last three years, we have signed comprehensive economic partnership agreements with ASEAN, Malaysia and Japan and are negotiating similar agreements with Thailand, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and our BITA with European Union is on the verge of conclusion," Sharma said.

"At the last East Asian Summit in Cambodia, we have joined the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership negotiations, which will perhaps emerge as the largest trading bloc in the entire world, including countries of ASEAN, Japan, Korea, China, Australia and New Zealand apart from India," he added.

Sharma is the Chairman of the Partnership Summit, which is being organized by CII in collaboration with Commerce and Industry Ministry and Uttar Pradesh government. (ANI)