PH to host 27th Asean Labor Ministers’ Meeting — DOLE

FILE PHOTO: A woman passes ASEAN Summit flags at Suntec Convention Centre in Singapore, November 11, 2018. REUTERS/Edgar Su

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines will be hosting the 27th Asean Labor Ministers’ Meeting (ALMM), the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on Sunday announced.

Labor ministers and officials from Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines are expected to attend the meetings from October 25 to 29.

Dialogues will also be held with the “Asean Plus Three” — China, Japan and South Korea.

According to Labor Sec. Bienvenido Laguesma, the biennial meetings serve as a “major venue to identify and advance areas of regional cooperation on matters affecting labor and employment.”

READ: Widest output gap in Asean to scar PH labor market

Set to be tackled in the meeting, said Laguesma, are several themes including the development of various regional programs on skills development, digitalization, climate change and green jobs, industrial relations and the changing nature of work, migration, and social protection. It is also planned to focus on moving beyond the pandemic and further promoting digitized, inclusive, and sustainable recovery and growth for workers.

Further, the meetings will also draw attention to the need for more regionally coordinated responses to the problems of unemployment, particularly in rural areas, rising food prices, and inflation, which are currently among the biggest threats to the welfare and well-being of workers in the area.

With these themes in mind, the ministers and officials are expected to come up with priorities on regional actions to improve skills for employment and the delivery of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) — to make digitalization accessible to all, and modernizing agriculture to improve agricultural productivity, enhance food security and create new jobs.

According to Laguesma, this is the first time that agricultural modernization and food security will be among the top priorities in the ALMM agenda.

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/MUF