The Vietnamese Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, chaired a press conference in Hanoi on May 25, announcing the outcomes of both events.

Minister Ngan said that the 21^st ASEAN Labour Ministers’ Meeting had also adopted guidelines to ensure a healthy relationship in ASEAN labour markets, and a joint statement from the meeting. The action plan includes 21 sections, which will be ratified by each ASEAN member nation. Accordingly, each ASEAN member will carry out the plan to ensure national sovereignty and the ASEAN Charter.

The participants at the meeting also reached a consensus on Vietnam’s proposal on an ASEAN declaration on developing its human resources and improving its professional skills to promote a higher economic growth rate in the region. They also submitted the proposal for ASEAN’s leaders to approve at the 17^th ASEAN Summit, held in Hanoi in October 2010.

The ASEAN + 3 Labour Ministers’ Meeting (plus Japan, China and the Republic of Korea) also discussed measures to strengthen cooperation in the fields of human resource development, labour, employment, and social welfare between ASEAN and its partner countries. Japan, China and the Republic of Korea pledged to enhance cooperation with ASEAN member countries in human resources development, vocational training and a safety at work network.

The second ASEAN Human Resources Conference emphasised the importance of seeking medium and long-term solutions to increase the quality of the region’s labour force.

Delegates at the conference stressed that ASEAN member nations should work together to build up high-quality labour force to meet increasing demands.

Sachiko Yamamoto

She thanked the Government of Vietnam for successfully hosting the 21^st ASEAN Labour Ministers’ Meeting and the 2nd ASEAN Human Resources Conference.

However, to ensure the economy recovers sustainably, she said, it is essential to have balanced and practical policies to guarantee sustainability in terms of economics, society, the environment and jobs.

ILO’s Global Employment Agreement provide such measures to boost sustainable recovery while ensuring high productivity, quality, a focus on investment, jobs, and social welfare. The agreement was rectified by the ILO’s members at the 2009 International Labour Conference to speed up economic and occupational recovery.

The joint agenda between the ILO and ASEAN aims to create more jobs for young people after they leave school.

Small- and medium-sized businesses in ASEAN play an important role in helping the economy to recover and creating more jobs.

The ILO focuses on the tripartite-cooperation mechanism and hopes that in ASEAN, a lot of importance be given to this mechanism, providing sustainable development across the region.

Christopher Ng, the Regional Secretary of the ASEAN Services Employees Trade Union, said he is proud of Vietnam’s achievements.

The global financial crisis had a great impact on ASEAN. The most visible is the job crisis, which could exist for several years. The UNDP predicts that the financial meltdown will increase the rate of unemployment by 2-4 percent per year.

The global crisis is worsening the unemployment rate and destabilizing unofficial jobs.

We believe that the ASEAN Economic Community has the potential to give its member countries a great advantage by boosting economic growth and providing more job opportunities. This development takes people as its core which is the key to equal and stable growth for all. It’s no wonder that developing skills bring huge benefits to workers, the labour market and economic growth.

Over the past ten years, we have consulted closely with the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour by providing information and training to develop abilities which is in the best interests of the workforce.

Duong Duc Lan, the Vice Director General of the General Vocational Department, said that the state plays a pivotal role in investing to expand vocational training.

By 2020, Vietnam will have a population of around 99 million, with a 57.5 million-strong workforce. Statistics show that if the GDP growth stands at 8 percent per year, the growth of new jobs will be 3 percent annually on average for the 2011-2020 period, or an additional 1.6 million jobs from 2011-2015 and another 1.2 million jobs from 2016. Thus, by 2020, almost 50 million people will be employed. About 27.5 million people will have received vocational training to meet the economy’s demands.