TOKYO (AFX-ASIA) - The ruling parties will decide on comprehensive economic and employment measures today, including a plan to set up a fund to help create employment opportunities and support job changes, he Nihon Keizai newspaper reported. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is expected to include such measures in a year to March 2002 supplementary budget, it said. He will instruct lawmakers to devise an extra budget following the release of the April-June gross domestic product data. The proposed steps include establishing a fund for both the creation of new industries and emergency employment measures. The fund, which New Komeito says should be as large as 2 trln yen, is intended to help municipal governments hire more staff for public-service-related positions and enable people to use private-sector placement agencies as well as government-run placement centers to find new jobs. Other employment measures include expanding unemployment insurance to cover those studying to be certified, enabling the unemployed to defer mortgage payments, and finding jobs for the growing number of workers expected to be laid off from the construction industry, the newspaper said. The parties will support efforts by the Liberal Democratic Party's Research Commission on the Tax System to revise securities-related taxes in order to revitalize the stockmarket, it said. The coalition will also propose expanding preferential tax systems for start-ups as well as for capital investment by small and midsize companies. The ruling parties aim to submit tax reform plans to the extraordinary Diet session slated to be called September 27. The measures also call for the early passage of legislation that will create a legal framework to establish an entity that will buy stocks from banks as they unwind cross-held shares, the newspaper added.