Mr Lim Boon Heng, Minister and NTUC General Secretary;
Mr Philip Jennings, UNI General Secretary;
Mr John de Payva, President P&MS UNI Asia-Pacific;
Mr Michel Rousselot, President UNI P&MS Committee;
Distinguished Participants and Guests

It is a great pleasure to join you here today for the opening of this first Union Network International Professional and Managerial Staff World Conference. Although Union Network International’s pre-merger organizations are old friends, so to speak, I should like to offer a very warm welcome to old friends in this new form, UNI. Your conference theme, Professionals and Managers in the Knowledge Economy, is well chosen. The programme promises three days of stimulating discussion – and I congratulate you on the thought-provoking background documents, too. I am also very pleased to see this conference taking place in this region. Singapore has welcomed the knowledge economy, indeed, fostered it. It has the highest per capita rate of internet use in Asia, and significantly, there is strong union involvement in information and communication technology training.

The world we live in today is vastly different from anything we might have imagined, even two decades ago. The revolution in information and communications technology - ICT - and the globalization that this has supported, have changed the social and economic landscape. It’s changed the way we work; it is changing the way we live, and it is changing the way we unionize. Twenty years ago, we didn’t expect the internet. We did not expect the massive flows of international trade we see today. And neither did we expect UNI – 15 million workers in 140 countries joining hands to find new and more effective ways to organize in today’s world.

Constant and rapid change is now part of our lives – and it is leading to profound change in society at large. In this region, the change has been particularly pronounced. The years of rapid growth that transformed many of the economies of this region had much to do with globalization. So, too, did the agony of the Asian financial crisis. One showed us globalization’s opportunities, the other demonstrated its risks. In the countries affected by the crisis, falling currencies and plunging stocks soon turned into wage cuts, unemployment, and real human suffering. It was a painful experience, and although recovery is now underway, the memories, and the sense of uncertainty remain.

This feeling is by no means confined to this region. Our ILO Director-General Juan Somavia is very clear – he says the benefits of globalization are not reaching enough people. The global economy is not creating enough jobs that meet people’s aspirations for a decent life; and perceptions of uncertainty and insecurity are spreading across societies. It is here that the ILO’s Decent Work agenda is so vital. Ensuring women and men have opportunities for decent work, in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity, is our Organization’s primary goal. It is based on the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, and the ILO’s fundamental Conventions, encompassing freedom of association and the effective right to collective bargaining, the elimination of forced labour, the effective abolition of child labour and the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.

Decent work is a rights-based development agenda. Decent work is inclusive – it is for all women and all men. Decent work offers a social floor for the global economy, and it forms the cornerstone of the ILO’s work today. Interestingly, in this region, we see that in the wake of the crisis, respect for these principles is growing. During the 1998-99 biennium, the number of ratifications of fundamental ILO Conventions in this region was two-and-a-half times that recorded in the previous two years. This growing awareness of the importance of putting people first is, perhaps, the silver lining of the crisis. Even so, in this region, we have much to do. Asia and the Pacific is still home to most of the world’s poor. Inequality, particularly between nations, is rising. Although UNDP estimates put the number of internet users in the world today at more than 300 million, there are still 884 million illiterate adults.

The challenge we face today is to take globalization – the knowledge economy – and make sure that its opportunities and its benefits reach more people. There is encouraging potential. New technology means people can work from home, and that’s good news for women with family responsibilities; and for people with disabilities that affect their mobility. It may help eliminate lingering discrimination – as physical presence and attributes become less important, the world will learn to look more clearly at people’s qualifications, experience and capacities. New technology also means that developing countries can sometimes leapfrog, and that’s good news. The success of India’s software industry is a case in point; its software exports alone are expected to exceed $4 billion this year, about nine per cent of the country’s exports. In addition, this technology offers enormous potential for workers’ organizations and the services they provide - of which you yourselves are an excellent example. The challenges, though, are also significant. In this region, we have serious questions of access to address. We must look at access to equipment and infrastructure. In 1998 in the United States more than 26 per cent of people were using the Internet. In South Asia, only 0.04 per cent used it. We must also look at education and training. To make full use of today’s opportunities, people need skills. Those skills must be based on a solid educational foundation, and supported by a commitment to lifelong learning. This means that we must change the way we think. Our lives used to be divided into three stages – the first was devoted to learning, the second to work; and the third was retirement. Today, we must say, "learning, learning, learning." Education must be ongoing, learning must be constant.

In this new environment, wealth is increasingly measured in terms of people – their knowledge and skills. A financial balance sheet no longer tells the whole story – enterprises need to take into account the value and the potential of the people who work within their walls. More and more, human resources development is the factor that makes the difference between countries and enterprises that perform well in the knowledge economy, and those that do not. The ILO is focused on this. This year’s International Labour Conference paved the way for the formulation of a new Recommendation on Human Resources Development. Sectoral meetings have examined on industries that have been particularly affected by ICT and changes in the way the world works. These included the Tripartite Symposium on Information Technologies in the Media and Entertainment Industries: Their impact on employment, working conditions and labour management relations; and the Tripartite Meeting on the HRD Implications of Globalization and Restructuring in Commerce. UNI is of course involved in both these areas, and together with employers, reached useful conclusions. In other areas – the next ILO World Employment Report will take as its theme Decent Work in the Information Society. This flagship publication promises to be a comprehensive exploration of the effect of the information and communications technology revolution on the world of work.

The knowledge economy is in many respects uncharted territory. We haven’t been sailing it very long. We are starting to learn to recognize the opportunities, and the pitfalls. It is important that we keep a balanced perspective. It is important that we keep questions of equity at the very forefront of debate. And it is important that we remember that this new economy is all about people. This economy must exist for people – not the other way around. In the knowledge economy, people, their knowledge and their skills, are more valuable than ever before. We must, however, be wary of any tendency to view people as a commodity. People are a resource, but not a commodity. People must be treated with respect and dignity. That, in essence, means decent work. Trade unions have a dynamic and highly significant role to play as monitors and guardians of decent work. It is a role that will help ordinary people look forward to better lives. Social dialogue is an essential tool. The networked world offers us a means of making it even more effective. The way we communicate, the way information is exchanged and used, is changing almost as quickly as we can talk about it. This carries important implications for social dialogue, for trade unions, and for the world of work. I believe that we will see trade unions playing an even more dynamic role in the world of work in the years to come. Your presence here today, and your conference agenda, make feel very confident that this belief is well founded.

Once again, I thank you for the opportunity to join you here today, and I wish you well with what promises to be a most stimulating and productive conference.