President pledges 60,000 jobs to rebuild quake-hit Chile

Agence France-Presse | 03/19/2010 8:42 PM

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SANTIAGO, Chile – Chile’s new President Sebastian Pinera has pledged to create 60,000 jobs as part of reconstruction efforts after the massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck the country last month.

Pinera’s week-old administration will “re-launch the production sector… and create 60,000 additional job opportunities, especially in the affected regions,” he said Thursday in his first nationally televised address since his inauguration.

The February 27 quake leveled infrastructure in parts of south-central Chile, while a subsequent tsunami all but washed away dozens of coastal towns.

“The challenge to lifting up Chile is lifting up beyond what the earthquake destroyed,” Pinera said, pledging to develop a “robust action plan” to address the disaster.

Pinera estimated last week it would cost some 30 billion dollars to rebuild and said he was reassigning resources from the national budget to help bear the costs of reconstruction.

Officials in the new government are compiling an authoritative death toll following conflicting official figures; Pinera on Thursday put the number of dead at “over 400.”

Two million were left homeless mainly in central and southern coastal areas.

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