KL URGES ASEAN’S DIALOGUE PARTNERS TO ASSIST IN LABOUR ISSUES

KUALA LUMPUR, May 25 (Bernama) -- Malaysia hopes that Asean’s dialogue
partners will assist the grouping’s members in streamlining the employment
policies while promoting social dialogue and strengthening their labour
administration system.

Human Resources Minister Dr. S.Subramaniam said the need to strengthen
Asean’s labour administration system was critical in times of crisis.

"I am of the view that an effective labour administration system is the key
for enhanced governance in the labour market," he said when addressing the 21st
Asean Labour Ministers Meeting in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi Tuesday. The
text of his speech was made available to Bernama here.

In this context, Subramaniam said, Kuala Lumpur hoped that more technical
and financial assistance would be extended to the Asean member states in
implementing programmes and activities under the proposed Work Plan of Asean
Labour Ministers 2010-2015.

Asean’s dialogue partners are Australia, Canada, China, EU, India,
Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia and the United States.


Subramaniam said 2009 had not been an easy year for Asean.

"What began as a credit turmoil in the US has intensified into a global
financial crisis, leading to a protracted slowdown and severe financial problem
in many countries," he said.

He said the Asean region was affected in different ways, with factory
closures, reduced investment and some flight of investors, while migrant workers
had to return home, and thousands of locals were out of work, with the
unemployment rates rising rapidly.

"For Malaysia, the global financial crisis has had severe ramifications for
the real economy. The decline in the economies of our major trading partners had
led to a consequential impact upon our business operators.

"Retrenchment exercises and instances of pay-cuts escalated and many of our
employers had to implement various cost-cutting measures."

He said athat lthough a year or so had passed since the brunt of the
economic downturn was felt and there were now some signs of visible recovery in
certain economic sectors, Malaysia still persisted in its efforts to secure
persistent and enhanced economic sustainability.

"The government’s main concern is to secure jobs for our
citizens, in particular those who lost their jobs due to retrenchment, besides
ensuring their continued employability," he said.

The minister said Malaysia had taken steps to transform its skills training
initiative from shop floor or manual skills to skills ranging from professional,
conceptual, managerial, operational behavioural to interpersonal and
inter-domain skills.

"This is to ensure that these skills are relevant to the emerging economic
environment as it is important for Malaysia to move progressively towards
becoming a knowledge and high-income economy as envisaged under the New Economic
Model," he added.

-- BERNAMA




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