Tegucigalpa.
61% of “millennials“Hondurans would not vote in the primary elections, scheduled for next March 14, if you are to be held immediately, and want to migrate due to lack of employment, and 77% believe that Honduras does not offer opportunities to start a business.
This was announced this Friday in Efe by the Economic Policy Manager of the Honduran Council of Private Enterprise (COHEP), Santiago Herrera, based on a survey conducted by this country leadership.
According to the study, 61% of Millennials surveyed answered that if elections were held today, they would not vote, while 52% said they had no political preference.
“To the extent that political parties become interlocutors of the needs of the demands of the people, to this extent people trust the parties, “Herrera stressed.
However, in Honduras young people have been “losing confidence” in political parties in the face of non-compliance with their needs, he added.
Many young people believe that a leader “does not necessarily have a party, interprets their demands, their needs and is probably more likely to meet their expectationsHerrera emphasized.
The primary or internal elections, which are not mandatory, will be held on March 14 with the participation of the National parties in power; the Freedom and Refoundation (Free, first opposition force), and the Liberal, also of opposition, while the general ones will take place in November of this 2021.
Migrate in the face of a lack of opportunities
On the other hand, 61% of the Millennials generation, made up of people born in the 80s and 90s, want to migrate mainly due to lack of employment and opportunities in their country.
The high number of Millennials who want to migrate “worries” the private company of Honduras, Pointed out Herrera, who said that young people who are “discouraged” by the lack of a job have only “two exits: they are looking for regular or irregular emigration looking for opportunities elsewhere or are easy prey to get involved in irregular activities “.
He stressed that family remittances are the main source of foreign currency in the Central American country, but “it is still a family and social tragedy” due to the irregular migration of thousands of Hondurans.
“We would like these young people to be trained, trained, able to carry out a task, to enter the labor market productively. The country cannot be sacrificing its youth for lack of opportunities,” stressed the representative of the ‘COHEP.
The true purpose of Honduras’ private enterprise before, during and after the pandemic“And after the devastating passage of tropical storms Eta and Iota last November, it is ‘generating employment,'” he stressed.
Young people need to have access to “a formal job, not an informal or precarious one,” Herrera noted, noting that private enterprise requires a conducive business environment to create jobs.
Companies also need a favorable investment climate that generates “confidence“As well as an environment with conditions of legal certainty that ensures that the” rules are stable, “he added.
Lack of education, another failure
The document exposes another failure: the lack of access to education in the country, where only 17% of Millennials surveyed have completed a university degree, 39% attended high school and 16% only primary.
In addition, 23% of young people are students university students, 3% have a technical degree and just 2% have obtained a postgraduate degree, so Herrera urged the Honduran authorities to strengthen the education system and ensure internet access.
87% of Millennials have a TV at home, 86% have a smartphone, and only 35% have a computer at home.
The COHEP study also notes that 77% of respondents believe that there are no opportunities to start a business in Honduras and 29% want to start a business in the short term.
“Every time the country makes an effort and we must recognize that both at the level of government (…) has tried to consolidate all its programs to promote entrepreneurship. We as a private company have motivated and promoted many actions to ensure that young people have opportunities to start a business easily, ”he explained.
Herrera stressed the importance of increasing the income of the families to improve people’s quality of life and prevent young people from migrating irregularly in caravans.