Hanoi (Vietnam) – Vietnam wants to further promote cooperation with other ASEAN members and international organisations for the effective implementation of the ASEAN Declaration on Human Resources Development for the Challenging World of Work.
The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Senior Labour Officials Meeting (SLOM), the 16th edition, was held in the form of a teleconference, on October 26.
The SLOM is an annual activity, held to review the implementation of activities of the three working groups – the Working Group on Progressive Labour Practices to Enhance the Competitiveness of ASEAN (SLOM-WG), the ASEAN Committee to Implement the Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers (ACMW) and the ASEAN Occupational Safety and Health Network (ASEAN-OSHNET).
The 16th SLOM prepared the content for the 26th ASEAN Labour Ministers’ Meeting (ALLM) and the ALMM Plus Three, to be held under the chair of Vietnamese Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung on October 28.
At the SLOM, the Vietnamese delegation provided updates on the pace of activities and projects being implemented under the leadership of Vietnam, including the building and adoption of the ASEAN Declaration on Human Resources Development for the Challenging World of Work along with a roadmap to implement the declaration.
Accordingly, the declaration was adopted at the 36th ASEAN Summit. The roadmap for the declaration, comprising specific activities and programmes, was also approved at the ASEAN high-level conference on Human Resource Development for the Changing World of Work, which was held virtually on September 16. It will be submitted to the 37th ASEAN Summit at the end of this year.
Ha Thi Minh Duc, deputy director of the International Cooperation Department under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA), said Vietnam wants to further promote cooperation with other ASEAN members and international organisations for the effective implementation of the roadmap for the ASEAN Declaration on Human Resources Development for the Challenging World of Work.
According to Duc, Vietnam has completed a guidance on integrating gender issues into laws and labour policies, and is planning to hold training courses on the guidance in early 2021.
Also in 2021, Vietnam will share a regional research report on changes in the nature of working relations as an impact of the application of information and communication technology (ICT) and the adequacy of laws in regulating working relations.
The 16th SLOM took note of updates provided by the ASEAN Secretariat on the progress in implementing SLOM-related decisions adopted by ASEAN meetings, along with information on the bloc’s recently-approved statements.
The Secretariat also spoke about the ASEAN Comprehensive Recovery Framework and its implementation plan. The key objective of the framework was to name priorities of specialised agencies under ASEAN pillars and related parties, namely the private sector and dialogue partners, so as to coordinate in re-opening the economies and contributing to ASEAN’s recovery and resiliency.
The meeting was updated on ASEAN declarations adopted during the recent past, which are the ASEAN Declaration on Human Resources Development for the Challenging World of Work and its implementation roadmap; the ASEAN Technical and Vocational Education and Training Council; the ASEAN Labour Ministers’ Statement on the Future of Work; ASEAN Consensus on Promoting Green Jobs for Equity and Inclusive; ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers; Vientiane Declaration on Transition from Informal Employment to Formal Employment towards Decent Work Promotion in ASEAN; and the revised ASEAN Roadmap for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour by 2025.
Participants also considered and reached agreement on working plans on labour matters for 2021-2025, including the working programme of ASEAN labour ministers and working plans of the SLOM-WG, ASEAN-OSHNET and ACMW./.
