BANGKOK (ILO News) - Creating jobs should be a policy priority in its own right, said Thailand's Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Welfare to a tripartite meeting of labour specialists and employment planners, which opened today in Bangkok.

Mr. Jongchai Thiengtham told tripartite delegates representing employers, workers and governments from 12 countries and one special administrative region^* assembled for a meeting of the International Labour Organization that in the wake of the Asian financial crisis, Aemployment is no longer likely to be viewed as an automatic outcome of economic growth. It is likely to be viewed as a policy priority in its own right.

The Deputy Minister said that for many countries in the crisis-struck region Athe greatest shortfall has been in the mechanisms and institutions of social protection and social security.

He stressed the need for social dialogue at a time when Asacrifices need to be made and there are and will continue to be job losers.

He said that Asia's traditional strengths of high economic growth rates and export orientation needed to be built upon, notably by enacting Aemployment policies and strategies aimed at developing human resources to respond to labour markets.

Putting employment at the heart of sustainable development strategies, and of economic and social policies, was a key theme at the ground-breaking World Summit for Social Development, held in Copenhagen in 1995, and is a cornerstone of ILO concerns, noted the Organization's Assistant Director-General, Ms. Mitsuko Horiuchi, in her opening address to the meeting.

Today's meeting, she said, was a significant part of the follow-up to the World Summit, which gave the highest priority to promoting social development and full, productive and freely chosen employment - issues of special concern to the ILO.

A dramatic illustration of the impact of globalization, Athe financial crisis has also highlighted the importance of sound labour market institutions and safety net systems, she said.

The technical report prepared for discussion at the meeting depicted a gloomy employment situation across the region, with no country immune to job losses.

In Indonesia, some 8 million jobs were lost in 1998 and the unemployment rate could rise as high as 20 per cent; in Thailand, the crisis sent unemployment figures from 2.2 per cent to 5 per cent; in the Republic of Korea from less than 3 per cent to 7; while in the Philippines, unemployment is estimated to be at least 11 per cent.

In the transition economies of East Asia (such as the Lao People's Democratic Republic and Viet Nam) and South Asian economies (Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) job quality was deteriorating, forcing people back into casual employment and subsistence agriculture. Neither were the developed economies unaffected by unemployment - Japan's rate had gradually risen to 4 per cent, while in Australia, and New Zealand rates had hovered around 8 per cent in recent years.

During the meeting, which runs from 13 to 15 January at the Amari Watergate Hotel in Bangkok, delegates are expected to recommend measures to spur job creation, emphasizing human resource development, social dialogue and development planning.