Tegucigalpa.
61% of “millennia“Hondurans would not vote in the primary elections, scheduled for March 14, if they take place immediately and want to migrate due to lack of jobs, and 77% believe that Honduras does not offer opportunities to start a business.
This was announced to Efe on Friday by the economic policy manager of the Honduran Council of Private Enterprises (Cohep), Santiago Herrera, based on a survey conducted by the country’s leadership.
According to the study, 61% of millennials surveyed said that if elections were held today, they would not vote, while 52% said they had no political preferences.
“To the extent that political parties become interlocutors of ask for needs from the people, to this extent people trust the parties “, Herrera underlined.
However, in Honduras, young people have “lost confidence” in political parties due to lack of satisfaction of their needs, he added.
Many young people believe that a leader “is not necessarily a party, he interprets his demands, needs and probably has a better chance of fulfilling expectations“It simply came to our notice then.
The primary or internal elections, which are not mandatory, will take place on March 14 with the participation of the national parties in power; Libertad y Refundación (Free, the first opposition force) and Liberal, also opposition, while the generals will be deployed in November 2021.
Migrate in the absence of opportunities
On the other hand, 61% of the millennial generation, which is made up of people born in the 80s and 90s, want to migrate mainly due to lack of jobs and opportunities in their country.
The large number of millennials who want to migrate “worries” the private company of Hondurassaid Herrera, who said that young people who are “discouraged” by the lack of a job have only “two options: go for regular or irregular emigration, look for opportunities elsewhere or are easy prey to get involved in activities of irregular “.
He stressed that family remittances are the main source of foreign currency for 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 educated, trained and able to develop a job, to enter the labor market in a productive way. The country cannot sacrifice its youth for lack of opportunities,” the Cohep representative stressed.
The true purpose of Honduras’ private enterprise “before, during and after pandemic“And after the devastating passage of tropical storms, Eta and Iota, in November last year,” generate jobs, “he said.
Young people need access to “a formal job, not an informal or precarious one,” said Herrera, who noted that private companies need a business environment conducive to job creation.
Companies also need a favorable investment climate that creates “trust“as well as an environment with legal certainty that guarantees that” the rules are stable, “he added.
Lack of education, another shortcoming
The document reveals another flaw: the lack of access to education in the country, where only 17% of the millennials surveyed completed their university studies, 39% attended high school and 16% only elementary school.
In addition, 23% of young people are students academic3% have a technical career and only 2% have a postgraduate degree, for which Herrera urged the Honduran authorities to strengthen the education system and guarantee access to the Internet.
87% of millennials have a TV at home, 86% have a smartphone and only 35% have a computer at home.
The Cohep study also indicates 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 governmental level (…) it has tried to strengthen all its programs to promote entrepreneurship. As a private company, we have motivated and promoted many actions to ensure that young people they have opportunities to create a business in an easy way, ”he explained.
Herrera stressed the importance of increasing revenue from families to improve people’s quality of life and prevent young people from migrating irregularly in caravans.