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Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention. The Committee notes the information contained in the Government's detailed and informative report for the period ending December 1997. The Government states that the labour force participation rate for men is around 86 per cent and for women around 76 per cent; and the unemployment rate was 5.8 per cent in 1996 and 5.2 per cent in 1997. The Government's priorities are to balance the budget, provide economic stability, and control inflation. Changes in the Government's active labour market policies include payment of unemployment benefit for a fixed period to aspiring entrepreneurs and a combination of training and education for unemployed workers. It has also established various grants to promote the employment of women, such as the Employment Development Fund. The Government also has expanded its rural development policy with the aim of stimulating business investment through grants, loans, equity capital and through the provision of increased advice, assistance and employment counselling to the rural workforce. The Committee would appreciate being kept informed of the success of these policies and programmes in fulfilling the objectives of the Convention.

Article 3. The Committee notes with interest the adoption of the Labour Market Measures Act of 1997 to promote greater balance between supply and demand. This objective is to be achieved primarily through gathering information on the employment situation and prospects which regional councils can then use to make proposals on regional labour market measures. The councils include in their membership workers' and employers' representatives, a well as other groups with specific information on the labour market. The Committee would appreciate being kept informed of the types of proposals made by these regional councils and how their suggestions are implemented.