PEHIN Orang Kaya Seri Kerna Dato Seri Setia (Dr) Haji Awang Abu Bakar bin Haji Apong, Minister of Home Affairs, recently attended the 24th session of the Asean Labour Ministers’ Meeting and the 9th Asean Labour Ministers’ Plus Three Meeting hosted by the Government of Lao People’s Democratic Republic in Vientiane, Lao PDR.
During the meetings, ministers overseeing labour and employment reviewed and agreed to enhance future activities to further technical cooperation on labour among Asean member countries.
The ministers endorsed several cooperative work plans to be carried out between 2016 and 2020 for the Asean Committee on the Implementation of the Asean Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers (ACMW), and the Senior Labour Officials Meeting Working Group on Progressive Labour Practices to Enhance the Competitiveness of Asean (SLOM-WG). A comprehensive new work programme of initiatives was also adopted for Asean Labour Ministers with the objective of realising an integrated Asean Community by 2025.
During the meeting which started on May 15, the ministers agreed to endorse the ‘Vientiane Declaration on Transition from Informal Employment to Formal Employment towards Decent Work Promotion in Asean’.
Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Kerna Dato Seri Setia (Dr) Haji Awang Abu Bakar bin Haji Apong, Minister of Home Affairs, in a group photo with his counterparts at the 24th session of the Asean Labour Ministers’ Meeting
Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Kerna Dato Seri Setia (Dr) Haji Awang Abu Bakar shared with his Asean counterparts that the number of persons employed in informal sector in Brunei Darussalam was estimated at 18,000 and that formalisation of those working in informal jobs in the country is encouraged through extending of social safety nets, business start-up initiatives, improvement of government services and strengthening of public-private partnerships.
The Vientiane Declaration is expected to be submitted to the 28th Asean Summit in Lao PDR in September 2016 for adoption.
Dr Khamphaeng Xaysomphaeng, Minister of Labour and Social Welfare of Lao PDR, who chaired the meeting, expressed his appreciation over the support given by his Asean counterparts while also underscoring the importance of the meeting in reviewing the progress of labour cooperation between Asean member countries.
The ministers also discussed the progress achieved as well as the challenges that remain in concluding the draft Asean instrument on the protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers. Ministers had agreed in the meeting that the new deadline for finalisation of the draft instrument would be April 2017.
Also present at the meeting were ministers and vice ministers from the People’s Republic of China, Japan and Republic of Korea.
The Brunei delegation comprised of Haji Mohd ‘Abdoh bin Dato Seri Setia Haji Abdul Salam, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Home Affairs; Haji Na’aim bin Mohd Salleh, Ambassador of Brunei Darussalam to Lao PDR; Haji Rani bin Begawan Pehin Siraja Khatib Dato Seri Setia Haji Mohd Yusof, Acting Commissioner of Labour; and senior officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs and Department of Labour.
The post Minister attends Asean Labour Ministers’ meeting appeared first on Borneo Bulletin Online.