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ASEM labor summit to resume
Ridwan Max Sijabat , The Jakarta Post , Nusa Dua, Bali | Mon, 10/13/2008 11:35 AM | National
Delegates from 45 countries from Asia and Europe will meet in Bali this week to discuss issues and cooperation in the area of labor, with trade unions demanding they be included in the process.
Delegates to the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Labour and Employment Ministers' Meeting include 15 labor ministers, several deputy ministers and nine ambassadors from the two continents.
Manpower and Transmigration Minister Erman Suparno thanked ASEM for the confidence it had shown in Indonesia in asking it to host the summit.
"Indonesia will propose the promotion of occupational health and safety and the social protection for workers that the country has long practiced," he told The Jakarta Post here Sunday.
Erman said Indonesia would lobby participating countries to help provide training programs to improve the workers' skills.
"We will also pursue the implementation of the technical cooperation discussed during the first summit in Postdam (Germany) in 2006," he added.
Spokesman for the organizers Guntur said all delegates would have informal meetings on Monday to discuss bilateral and multilateral cooperation as well as issues for the summit.
"The main agenda of the Bali summit is to have social dialogues between the two continents on industrial relations, unemployment, poverty alleviation, decent employment, migrant workers, training programs and much more," he said.
The ASEM labor ministerial meeting follows the tripartite social dialogue held among ASEM labor ministers, employers and trade unions in Brussels at the end of July, which had globalization as its main agenda.
Asia and Europe combined account for 60 percent of the world's population, 50 percent of the world's gross domestic product and 60 percent of world trade.
On Monday and Tuesday, 60 delegates, including senior government officials, employers and trade unionists from the two regions, will hold a social dialogue to discuss labor issues as input for recommendations at the labor ministerial summit.
Erwin Schweisshelm, Indonesian representative of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), which organized and sponsored the social dialogue, said a number of speakers representing governments, employers and local and international trade unions would present their views to follow up on the results and recommendations of the first labor ministerial summit in Postdam.
Confederation of Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union (KSNSI) chairman Rekson Silaban said trade unions had joined forces to be recognized in the ASEM structure and dialogue.
