Yameen: Current government created only 4,000 jobs in 4 years

Former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom said that while his administration had created 104,000 new jobs especially for the youth, the current administration had managed to create only 4,000 jobs in four years.

He made the comment during the ceremony on Friday evening to present him with Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM)’s ticket for the upcoming presidential elections.

Speaking at the ceremony, Yameen said one of the areas greatly neglected by the current administration was the youth.

Yameen said the youth – who made up for two-thirds of Maldives’ population – were the fuel that drove the nation forward.

He said the first measure of an administration’s success was how it treated the youth.

He said the current coalition government had sorely failed in the test.

Yameen said that the creation of new employment opportunities for the youth had been an important and hard task carried out by his administration.

“It was no easy task to create 100,000 jobs in such a small economy in just five years,” he said.

Yameen said the current administration was run solely on traffic stickers, while the youth – the future of Maldives – were falling into ruin.

Yameen criticized the current administration, accusing it of failing to deliver its pledges.

He said that all the current administration has done was to cut the ribbon for projects initiated by his administration.

He also criticized the current administration’s economic policies.

Yameen said the national debt had risen to USD 6 billion, and that schools and hospitals had been put up as collateral for loans.

Yameen was presented with PPM’s ticket for the 2023 presidential elections before a large crowd, including representatives from all residential islands in Maldives, at the Alimas Carnival in Male’