Dung: High quality employment critical to development cycle
Viet Nam Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Saturday observed that globalization and liberalization generate new opportunities with diversified economic cooperation.
Nonetheless, APEC economies face such challenges as slow and unstable growth; high unemployment; imbalances between highly-skilled labour supply and demand; and social conflicts.
Prime Minister Dung shared these views with Ministers from APEC’s 21 member economies when he opened the APEC Human Resource Development Ministerial Meeting on Saturday in Ha Noi.
Meeting under the theme, “Promoting Quality Employment and Strengthening People-to-People Connectivity through Human Resources Development,” he said that APEC needs to further strengthen cooperation, experience sharing, especially in human resources development, by encouraging creativity and people-to-people connectivity.
“Such measures should be considered significant for restructuring and recovering economic growth, enabling social protection, social welfare and human development,” said Prime Minister Dung.
“I believe that APEC ministers and delegates will make suggestions and introduce new initiatives and effective solutions which are human-centered and at the same time, minimize the negative impacts of globalization and international labour division,” said Dung. “This includes unemployment, especially among young labourers; vulnerable groups, women, and people with disabilities in the labour market.”
After the opening session, Ministers addressed the issue of inclusive and sustainable growth. Viet Nam Minister of Planning and Investment, Bui Quang Vinh, set the tone for the discussion.
“While the need for social protection is widely recognized, fundamental human rights to social security remains unfulfilled for the large majority of the world’s population,” said Minister Bui.
“Addressing the social dimensions of globalization to support inclusive growth and sustainable development is the main task for APEC economies,” Bui continued. “Though there is no single model that will fit all economies, social protection measures need to be synchronized to benefit the wider population within the context of poverty alleviation and prevention to help overcome inequalities.”
“The success of the APEC Human Resources Development Ministerial Meeting will efficiently strengthen the regional linkages and cooperation to build up the Asia – Pacific region of self-resilience, cohesion, equitable, fair and sustainable development,” Prime Minister Dung concluded.
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