COOPERATION AGREEMENT BETWEEN ASEAN AND ILO

COOPERATION AGREEMENT BETWEEN ASEAN AND ILO:

(Significance and impact): 6 .

Mdm Halimah Yacob asked the Minister for Manpower what is the significance and impact of the Cooperation Agreement, to address labour and employment issues and promote social progress, that was signed on 20th March 2007 between ASEAN and the International Labour Organisation.

Mr Gan Kim Yong (for the Minister for Manpower): Mr Speaker, Sir, over the years, the International Labour Organisation, or ILO, and ASEAN have been cooperating in many areas of mutual interest, such as occupational safety and health, industrial relations and vocational training. ILO's technical expertise is well regarded and valued by ASEAN.

The Cooperation Agreement, which was signed between ASEAN and ILO recently, reflects the strong commitment of both organisations to collaborate closely in addressing labour and employment issues as well as promoting social progress. Singapore is supportive of this Cooperation Agreement and believes that it will pave the way for increased cooperation and partnership between ASEAN and ILO through mutual exchange of information and joint technical cooperation projects. Such collaboration is likely to benefit workers across ASEAN.

Mdm Halimah Yacob (Jurong): A follow-up question, Sir. I would like to ask the Minister of State what labour and employment issues will be covered by the Cooperation Agreement. How will workers in Singapore benefit and will the social

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partners be involved in this process of collaboration?

Mr Gan Kim Yong: Mr Speaker, the Cooperation Agreement covers a wide range of issues in labour, worker-related and employment-related issues. In particular, from Singapore's point of view, we are very interested in workplace safety and health (WSH) matters. In fact, as the Chair of ASEAN Labour Ministers, Singapore has adopted workplace safety and health as one of the core focus of ASEAN Labour Ministers, and this issue has also been brought up with ILO. We are working on the programmes, together with ILO, to address issues of workplace safety and health. I think we have three objectives in mind. Firstly, we want to, through this platform, learn from other countries' experience in workplace safety and health. We will also benefit from the expertise in ILO with regard to workplace safety and health. The second objective is to share our experience and efforts that we have put in over the many years in achieving our workplace safety and health. And, thirdly, we also want to showcase our achievements so far in WSH.