Friday, April 29 2005 14:41 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: Britain plans to boost job skills and entrepreneurship to help the country compete effectively with India, China and other nations, Prime Minister Tony Blair said yesterday (Apr 29, 2005).

Unveiling the ruling Labour Party's manifesto for the May 5 general elections at a press conference, Blair said, if voted to power, his party would set up a "manufacturing skills academy as part of plans to help thousands of firms over the next five years and to increase the number of apprenticeships across Britain to 300,000."

Blair, who was accompanied by Chancellor Gordon Brown and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt, said Britain had never worked so productively, created so much wealth and generated so many jobs.

But he warned that the world was changing rapidly and countries such as India and China were now competing with Britain on skills as well as costs.

"Between them, these two countries produce 125,000 computer science graduates every year - more than twice the whole of the European Union," he said.

The Prime Minister said British businesses could compete internationally and his government would work to ensure economic stability was maintained.

Describing Brown as the best Chancellor for decades, the Prime Minister said he would try to maintain a competitive tax regime and reduce the burden of regulation.

Replying to a question on Britain's entry into a European single currency, Blair said prior to that the economic tests had to be met.

"Business certainly doesn't want to close off the option. But I cannot say there are many businessmen knocking on my door saying 'go in now'," Blair said.

"The sensible position we have is to say leave the option open - apply the economic tests and decide what's in the national economic interest," the Prime Minister said.

"At the moment it clearly isn't. Whether that changes or not is a matter for the future," Blair said. "It is not likely in the very near future that it is going to change dramatically."

Brown said the Labour party, if voted to power, would increase the number of apprenticeships by 75,000 in the coming Parliament, raising the total to 300,000 by 2008 and a new goal of 330,000 by 2010.

"The path to economic prosperity is not to turn the clock back, not to limit access to training and education, but to do even more to open up skills and opportunity," Brown said.

He said investment in science would increase "dramatically" from 1.3 billion Pounds when Labour came to office in 1997 to 3.4 billion Pounds a year by 2007.