January 2008

• Aleksandre Kvitashvili appointed Minister of Labour, Health and Social Affaires of Georgia.
  31 January 2008. On January 31, 2008, Aleksandre Kvitashvili was appointed Minister of Labour, Health and Social Affaires of Georgia.
• Development of the North Caucasus region, job creation and SME growth
  29-30 January 2008. Development of the North Caucasus region, job creation and SME growth - was a main theme of the North Caucasus Entrepreneurship and Employment Workshop organized by the International Labour Organization in Kislovodsk on 29-30 January 2008.
• Business and responsibility: forum in Kazakhstan.
  24 January 2008. On January, 24 President Nursultan Nazarbayev paid a working visit to the city of Jezkazgan to attend a business forum on social responsibility of business.
  The forum attendees were representatives of Kazakhstan’s business structures, UNDP, MPs, akims and government members - over 160 of them all in all. The International Labour Organization was represented by Ms. Elaine Fultz, ILO Subregional Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
• Global Employment Trends 2008. ILO projects global economic turbulence could generate 5 million more unemployed in 2008.
  24 January 2008. Economic turbulence largely due to credit market turmoil and rising oil prices could spur an increase in global unemployment by an estimated 5 million persons in 2008, the International Labour Office (ILO) said today in its annual Global Employment Trends report (GET).
  The new projection for 2008 is in contrast to 2007, a watershed year in which sound global GDP growth--of more than 5 percent--, led to a “stabilization” of global labour markets with more people in work, a net increase of 45 million new jobs and only a slight increase in the number of people unemployed, to a total of 189.9 million persons worldwide.

  Full text of the Report (PDF, 1,1Mb)

• Seminars on Occupational Safety and Health in Baku.
  15 January 2008. In mid-January Baku hosted two seminars organized by the International Labour Organization: one – on safety in the construction sector and another – for labour inspections.
  The seminars brought together around 100 representatives of the Azerbaijani Labour Ministry, Emergencies Ministry, labour inspections, social partners, representatives of the republic’s construction industry, ILO experts and journalists.