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Obama to unveil job plans on Sept 7

Updated: 2011-09-01 06:45

(Xinhua)

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WASHINGTON - The White House said Wednesday that US President Barack Obama was scheduled to lay out a plan on September 7 to shore up job creation and economic growth at a joint session of Congress.

US policymakers should put aside politics and make decisions based on what is best for the country and not what is best for each of their parties, Obama said in a letter to congressional leaders requesting a joint session of Congress on September 7 to deliver the widely-scrutinized policy speech.

Experts held that Obama's key speech is expected to include proposals including infrastructure spending, tax credits and enhancing the federal government's fiscal sustainability.

It will be a "significant" speech with many elements to it, and both parties should endeavor to stimulate the economic growth at this important time of the US economy, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on Wednesday.

"The President feels that we are at a moment when we need to take significant action to spur economic growth and to create jobs," Carney said.

With the country's unemployment rate hovering at 9.1 percent and economic growth slowed to a nearly-stalling pace, creating jobs and speeding up economic recovery lie on top of the agenda for the Obama administration.

Mired in partisan wrangling on issues including deficit reduction due to a highly antagonistic Republican-led House of Representatives, the administration is seeking to roll out job creation measures that could be passed by both chambers of Congress to become effective.

Obama is focused on steps the administration and Congress can take together to improve the economy and create job opportunities, Carney stressed.

The White House said Wednesday that Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum directing several federal departments and agencies to identify high-priority, job-creating infrastructure projects, a latest step to speed up job creation.

The President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness announced Wednesday that in partnership with the Business Council, US Chamber of Commerce and other leading industry agencies, 45 industry leaders have committed to double the engineering internships available at their companies in 2012.

This step is part of a greater effort by Jobs Council to help address US shortage in engineering experts by getting 10,000 more engineering students graduate from US colleges and universities every year.

In a similar move, the US Treasury Department said Wednesday that an additional 50 community banks received a total of $767 million as part of the next tranche of funding provided through the government's Small Business Lending Fund (SBLF), to help the businesses grow and create new jobs.

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