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Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development on Wednesday pledged Government�s determination to find pragmatic means of ensuring that the youth were gainfully employed to reduce poverty. He said job creation, therefore, remained a priority of Government�s agenda at leadership meetings that required the combined use of local participation in planning with the utilisation of locally available skills to promote economic development. Mr Ofosu-Ampofo made the pledge at the launch of the 14th International Labour Organisation (ILO) Regional Seminar for Labour Based Practitioners on the theme: �Public Works for decent jobs and poverty reduction: Policies and Practices� in Accra. The ILO organises these regional seminars bi-annually with host countries for labour-based practitioners, policy makers, researchers and academicians globally to discuss, share ideas and experiences on labour-based technologies, offer employment as well as infrastructure investment as a fundamental cornerstone to reducing poverty. The last time Ghana hosted the programme was in 1996, and this year from September 5-9, to offer stakeholders opportunity to discuss development challenges facing developing countries in Africa and Latin America. Mr Ofosu-Ampofo said there was the need to tap local resources to ensure local economic development and stressed that the citizenry must be encouraged to be creative and innovative to harness local resources to their advantage. He said there was currently a strategic approach to infrastructure planning and development as part of Governments strategies for the effective provision of social and economic, as well as the creation of jobs for the teeming youth.