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OPENING REMARKS
BY
HON. ALAVI MOWLANA
MINISTER OF LABOUR, SRI LANKA
Mr. Director General,
The Guest of Honour, H.E. Mrs. Ladawan Wongsriwong,
Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Welfare Thailand,
Distinguished Ministers,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
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May I at the outset, thank
all of you for the honour conferred on my country, Sri Lanka and on me
personally, in electing me as your Chairman. Having been an
active trade unionist myself, and now functioning as the Minister of
Labour of my country, I consider it a particular honour to chair this
important tripartite regional event. I shall do my best to
contribute to your collective efforts in the coming days in this
friendly and hospitable country, Thailand. May I also
congratulate the 3 Vice Chairpersons on their election. I am
confident that with your co-operation and goodwill our Bureau will be
able to bring your deliberations to a successful conclusion.
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I wish to congratulate the
Director General and the ILO, for a most timely, and incisive report,
Decent Work in Asia. This will certainly facilitate our
discussion and enable us to arrive at productive conclusions.
The report brings out the many facets of the complex ILO mandate, in a
manner relevant to the challenges and opportunities, our Region will
face in the 21st Century.
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I hope we will have a
fruitful discussion on the important themes of Rights at work,
Employment, Social Protection, and Social Dialogue. As the
Director General rightly points out, our conclusions must be forward
looking. After a constructive debate among all of us, I hope we
will find consensus on that way forward. Such an outcome will
help us address the most pressing problems of the most needy
developing countries of our region.
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I wish you the best in
your endeavours. I and my Bureau colleagues will make ourselves
available at all times to move our agenda forward. I hope we can
engage in our work with efficiency and dispatch so that we can have
good time management at the Conference.
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