National Center of the Public Employment Services opened

The National Center of the Public Employment Services (NPES) was ceremonially declared open by the Honorable Minister of Labour and Trade Union Relations, W.D.J Seneviratne, and the State Minister of Labour and Trade Unions Relations Mr. Ravindra Samaraweera

Press release | 15 December 2015
The National Center of the Public Employment Services (NPES) was ceremonially declared open by the Honorable Minister of Labour and Trade Union Relations, W.D.J Seneviratne, and the State Minister of Labour and Trade Unions Relations Mr. Ravindra Samaraweera in the presence of Mr. Gotabaya Jayaratne, Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Trade Union Relations, Mr. Donglin Li, Country Director, ILO Country Office for Sri Lanka and the Maldives, and Mr. H.G.G.J. Dharmasena, Director General, Department of Manpower and Employment at Sethsiripaya Stage II, Battaramulla on December 15 2015.

The ILO Country Office for Sri Lanka and the Maldives is supporting the Ministry of Labour and the Department of Manpower and Employment through a multidimensional youth targeted strategy aimed at strengthening the capacity of staff on employment services operations, activation programmes and labour rights and responsibilities, upgrading the IT platform of the Department for carrying out job matching functions within public employment services and now, the support to open the National Center of the Public Employment Services.

The National Centre responds to two main objectives. On the one hand it will serve as the unit coordinating the action of District Centres focusing on improved matching of labour demand and labour supply. On the other hand, it will be the organizational entity in charge of designing, implementing, monitoring and coordinating nationwide employment and active labour market programmes helping the most vulnerable labour force.
Honorable Minister Mr. W.D.J Seneviratne highlighted how this initiative fits perfectly into the goal and target of the current government of creating ‘One Million Jobs’ within the next five years and thanked ILO for collaborating with the Ministry in expanding the network of PES centers island-wide.
Honorable State Minister R. Samaraweera emphasized how this centre should become actively engaged in facilitating the dialogue with Employers and Chambers, catering for all the job seekers, irrespectively of their profile.

In his address, Mr. Donglin Li stressed that the main development issue globally and in the newly approved Sustainable Development Goals is job creation for youth. ILO through its projects in Sri Lanka addresses the issue in a number of ways, by supporting direct job creation but also by strengthening the capacity of state actors to correct imbalances in the labour markets through sound intermediation and implementation of active labour market policies.