ILO and GCC Council of Ministers of Labour sign a Plan of Joint Activities
Signing took place on the sidelines of the 16th Asia and the Pacific Regional Meeting (APRM), in a move towards more cooperation between the two sides.
The signing took place on the sidelines of the APRM, the ILO-organized labour conference for Asia, scheduled to conclude on December 9 in Bali, Indonesia.
The Plan includes four major activities to be implemented during 2017, in the areas of small and medium enterprise promotion in the GCC labour market, recruitment policies and managing migrant worker issues, employment and decent work policies, and improvement of labour dispute resolution capacity.
“These activities are an initiative of the Executive Bureau of the GCC Council of Ministers of Labour and Social Affairs,” said Ruba Jaradat, ILO’s Regional Director for the Arab States, during the signing ceremony.
“The issues are very important to both the ILO and the GCC countries. We look forward to working with the Executive Bureau to implement the recommendations of the joint activities and workshops. We in the Regional Office for the Arab States in Beirut are ready to provide all required technical support.”
“We look forward to the implementation of these activities in 2017. We trust this will be the beginning of increased cooperation between the ILO and the GCC in the coming years. We would also like to thank the GCC Council of Ministers of Labour for accepting to host us in Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait to implement these projects,” she added.
Director General of the Executive Bureau Amer Al Hajri stressed the importance of bilateral relations with the ILO.
“Developed every two years, the Plan of Joint Activities is an opportunity to share experiences, concerns and challenges with the ILO,” said Al Hajri during the signing ceremony. “Over the past years, previous plans have achieved a number of successes to build the capacity of workers in GCC ministries of labour to deal with technical issues in the highest professional manner and in accordance with international standards.”
“The Plan also includes promoting nationalization of the Gulf labour markets. Providing jobs, productive employment and decent work for women and men requires sustained economic growth. There is therefore a need to take measures to address job growth in in order to promote inclusive growth and encourage national workers to engage more fully in the private sector,” he added.