Statement

By

His Excellency Mr. Phaithoon Kaeothong

Minister of Labour Head of the Thai Delegation

At the 21^st ASEAN Labour Ministers Meeting

24 May 2010, Melia Hanoi Hotel, Vietnam

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Her Excellency Madame Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan,
Minister of MOLISA ,Chairperson of ALMM
Excellencies the ASEAN Labour Ministers,
ASEAN Secretary General, Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen, 1. On behalf of the Thai Delegation,

          1. would like to join the other speakers who spoke before me in congratulating you on your election as the Chairman of the 21st ASEAN Labour Ministers Meeting. I am certain that, under Your Excellency's able chairmanship, the ASEAN Labour Ministers Meeting will accomplish all of its objectives.

          2. I wish to express the Thai delegation's deepest appreciation to the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam for its warm hospitality and the excellent arrangement of this meeting. It is an honour for me to deliver a statement in this 21 st ASEAN Labour Ministers Meeting. Allow me to share with you some key points that Thailand views of importance in guiding our deliberations.

          3. The key theme of the meeting "human resource for economic recovery and developments", captures the essence of what we face today, what we aim to overcome, and what we wish to achieve as stated in the ASEAN Labour Ministers Vision Statement. Against the backdrop of the worldwide financial crisis and the economic recession since 2008, key growth sectors of tourism and exports in Thailand were adversely affected and resulted negatively to the productivity as well as employment. Moreover, political tensions made the economic recovery a very challenging task that the Government is trying its best to tackle.

          4. According to the loth National Economic and Social Development Plan of Thailand for the years 2007-2011, the Development Plan takes a unique approach to development by enhancing the quality of life for Thais and creating social harmony: "a green and happy society".

          5. The plan aims to reduce the unemployment rate and inflation, increase productivity, enhance governance and strengthen the mechanisms of the market. The underlying principle of the plan is the Sufficiency Economy, essentially sustainable development, which has long been promoted by His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej and lauded by international development agencies. In fact Thailand has long been doing relevant projects based on "Sufficiency Economy" initiated by His Majesty the King.

          6. As being the key Ministry for Human Resources Development, we are actively involved in formulating relevant plans and implementing various programmes to enhance the capacity of our human resource in order to be able to cope with global changes.

          7. Recognizing the importance of human resource as one of the key factor for social and economic development, the Ministry of Labour, has been developing it's operation to ensure protection of workers' rights and benefits as well as to ensure employment security.

          8. To increase productivity of our workforce, we play important role of constructively engaging with enterprises to develop sets of competency standards in streams of occupational or industry sector groupings as the benchmark to control the quality of their workforce. The Royal Thai government introduced the skill-based wages in addition to promote human resources development.

          9. Taking into consideration the extent of labour force In informal sector, which accounted for more than 24 million or 62 percent of Thai workforce, the Ministry of Labour has moved ahead by extending the social protection system to reach out to the workforce in informal sector. The work is done through the extension of social network and the improvement of right and benefit of insured person under the Social Security Act. Under the Government's directives. the Ministry of Labour's implementation would contribute to the goal of social protection for all our people.

         10. In accordance to zo" ASEAN Labour Minister Meeting during 7-9 May 2008, in Bangkok, and the 97 th and 981h International Labour Conference during June 2008, and June 2009 in Geneva, the Ministry of Labour has committed itself to develop the Draft on Decent Work Country Programme and are now in the process of finalizing the draft. During the past few years, Thailand has implemented several measures in line with Global Job Pact objectives that aim to maintain jobs, bring people back into employment, enhance social protection etc.

          11. According to the ASEAN Community Blueprints of ASEAN's 2009-2015 roadmap, we can clearly see that the labour sector issues appear prominently in all three community blueprints. In this context, Thailand, as an active member, wishes to reiterate our pledge of support to the ASEAN region in the area of economic and social development. We must all use this Meeting to reaffirm our commitment to playa constructive role in this regard. A concerted regional partnership remains at the heart of it all. Thailand stands ready to play our part in such a partnership and looks forward to cooperating with ASEAN countries in such an endeavour.

          12. I thank you.