It gives me great pleasure to extend my appreciation to the distinguished guests and participants of this forum on World Day on Safety and Health at Work. As you all know this day has been designated by ILO to officially join in the campaign initiated by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) since 1995 for the International Commemoration Day for the Dead and Injured Workers.

Today’s forum has given us another opportunity to refocus much-needed attention on the ILO’s promotion of a safety culture in the workplace which is a key element of our Global Strategy on Occupational Safety and Health. Today’s presentations have also made us better informed on the present activities of our constituents in addressing safety and health at work in various ways.

We, at ILO, strongly feels that we are on our way towards achieving a strong “safety culture” --- built up through active and equal participation of governments, workers and employers organizations.

Yes, there’s still lots of work to do, but we are now equipped with knowledge and tools to transform the goals of the Global Strategy on OSH a reality.

We have the Promotional Framework designed to put safety and health on a high priority and raise the awareness of all partner organizations that safety and health is a multisectoral problem and a responsibility to be shared by all.

We have the National Plan of Action on Decent Work where a National OSH Plan will be integrated. The National OSH Plan will outline different programmes of government, workers and employers’ organizations. The Plan will also aim to strengthen national OSH systems.

Our continuing advocacy and promotion campaigns like the World Day for Safety and Health at Work which is a world-wide campaign highlights safety and health at work to reduce deaths and diseases related to work.

We also need to face the challenges of extending safety and health practices of smaller business entities and those which are in the informal economy. Through our tripartite strength, governments (both national and local levels), workers and employers can come together to extend safety and health practices to these workers.

We, at ILO will continue to provide technical guidance and advisory services to our partner organizations to put forward the global OSH agenda. As the UN Secretary General Kofi Anan puts it,

The ILO has been at the forefront of advocacy and activism in promoting safety and health at work. Safe work is not only sound economic policy, it is a basic human right.

In closing, I would like to share the ILO’s Director-General Juan Somavia’s words:

The International Labour Organization was founded to ensure everyone the right to earn a living in freedom, dignity and security, in short, the right to decent work. We have never accepted the belief that injury and disease "go with the job". Decent work is safe work.

Thank you once again for your active participation. Let’s keep this day an opportunity every year to renew our commitment towards creating and sustaining a safety and health culture at work.

Good afternoon to you all!