Brasília, 5/14/2004 (Agência Brasil) - President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva informed the Council of Economic and Social Development (CDES), at a meeting yesterday, that the government will send Congress two bills that will ease the ingress of students from low-income families into tuition-free, federally-run universities [called "public" universities], as well as tuition-charging private universities.

The government's idea is to have public universities reserve half of their enrollment for students coming out of public high schools. That works out to around 60,000 places. "This is a way for us to promote racial equality in public universities," said Lula, explaining that some of the places will be automatically reserved for Blacks and Indians.

With regard to unemployment, Lula once again expressed the government's concern. He cited the Soldier Citizen program as one of the action plans to deal with the problem. That program will create 30,000 jobs through an enlarged enlistment in the Armed Forces beginning in August. Annually some 70,000 recruits go into the Armed Forces. This year that number will rise to 100,000. The program will provide them with professional training and, when they complete their tour of duty, job placement opportunities.

Lula also announced a renovated First Job Program, with less red tape and more incentives for businesses to hire first-time workers.

Translator: Allen Bennett