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China, Beijing, 13-15 August 2007
Sunday, 12 August
16.00-18.00 Registration
Monday, 13 August
08.00-09.00 Registration
09.00-09.45 Opening Session
Mr. Juan Somavia, Director–General, ILO
Minister of Labour and Social Security, China
President/Premier of China or designate
09.45-10.00 Short break
10.00-11.00 Roundtable: Visions for the Decent Work Decade: Growth and Jobs to 2015.
A high-level roundtable will set the stage for the Forum by providing perspectives on the key opportunities and challenges facing the Region in the area of productive employment and decent work.
Invited to participate in the roundtable are senior representatives from key regional organizations:
Asian Development Bank;
UNESCAP;
ASEAN; as well as
High-level representatives of IOE and ITUC; and
a leading business person and/or academic from the region.
11.00-11.30 Coffee break
11.30-12.30 Roundtable continued with discussion and questions from the floor.
12.30-14.00 Lunch
14.00-16.30 Parallel working sessions 1. Parallel working sessions will focus on a number of key thematic areas which will need to be addressed during the Decent Work Decade. The objective will be to identify lessons learned from country experiences and to share future strategies. As a follow-up to the Forum, participants will be encouraged to make specific commitments to decent work objectives and to review strategies for meeting existing commitments in their national contexts. An important outcome will be to plan for information and experience sharing through the proposed Asian Decent Work Knowledge Network that will support their efforts to realize these commitments, including in the framework of Decent Work Country Programmes.
Theme 1A: Setting policy directions for job creation and poverty reduction.
Over the last decade the Asian region has been a leader in terms of economic growth, but often, this growth has not translated into adequate numbers of jobs to absorb the growing number of new labour market entrants and to reduce poverty sufficiently to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals targets. What changes in policies will be needed to ensure that during the Decent Work Decade, growth translates into the more and better jobs required to meet the poverty reduction targets across the region? How to ensure coherence between the economic and social policies in this area? What types of social security systems will be needed in the future?
Theme 1B: Sustaining productivity and competitiveness on a foundation of decent work.
In a globalizing world, productivity and competitiveness provide a crucially important foundation for continuing gains in employment and decent work. Competitiveness at both enterprise and national levels are closely linked to effective enterprise management practices and access to a skilled, motivated workforce. This in turn must be underpinned by effective education and training policies as well as good industrial relations practices. This session will review policies and programmes in these and related areas and the roles which will need to be played by governments, employers’ organizations and trade unions.
16.30-16.00 Coffee break
17.00-18.00 Feedback to plenary from working sessions and wrap-up of the day.
19.00 Reception hosted by ILO Director-General.
Tuesday, 14 August
09.30-11.00 Parallel working sessions 2.
Theme 2A: Defining institutions and policies for equitable and efficient labour markets.
As competitive pressures grow and technological and organizational changes happen at an ever faster rate, effective labour markets must be at the centre of any sustainable strategy to promote decent work. Many Asian countries, particularly after the Asian crisis in the late 1990s, have been introducing innovative policies and institutions to underpin better labour market intermediation and governance, as well as a range of active labour market policies. The session will review selected examples of such initiatives in the region, including the role of social dialogue and respect for fundamental principles and rights at work, and seek to identify lessons which may have potential for wider replication and adaptation.
Theme 2B: Rolling back informality.
Informal economies in the Asian region remain significant parts of economies as high as 80 per cent in some countries. As Asian economies adapt to global competition and changing technologies, subcontracting and outsourcing of production has increased, often involving micro and small enterprises at the bottom of the supply chain. The session will review the experiences of several Asian countries that are adopting measures promoting recognition, upgrading and support to informal units, and protection for their workers. How effective have these programmes been in terms of promoting decent work and can they be replicated and up-scaled?
11.00-11.30 Coffee break
11.30-12.30 Working sessions 2A and 2B continued.
12.30-14.00 Lunch
14.00-15.00 Feedback to plenary from working sessions.
15.00-15.30 Coffee break
15.30-16.30 Roundtable on the establishment of an Asian Decent Work Knowledge Network.
This roundtable will be chaired by the ILO Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific to review objectives and operational modalities for the proposed Network. Participants will include selected country representatives as well as representatives of employers’ and workers’ organizations.
16.30-16.45 Closing
Evening Reception hosted by Ministry of Labour and Social Security of the People’s Republic of China.
Wednesday, 15 August
Field visit to the Tianjin Human Resources Development and Service Center.
Lunch hosted by the Mayor of Tianjin.
Programme of the Asian Regional Forum – Beijing 13-15 August 2007
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