Mr Hayaki, Ms Araki, it is a pleasure to welcome you to Bangkok and to our ILO Regional Office – welcome. I would like to begin today with a vote of very warm thanks. The ILO is keenly aware of the importance of the continued strong support that the Japanese Government has provided through the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Last year, the ILO/Japan Multi-bilateral Programme put in place nine projects. The Japan Government’s support made this possible. On behalf of my colleagues – and on behalf of the thousands of working women and men who these projects serve – I extend my very sincere appreciation. I would also like to underline the seriousness with which the ILO approaches this review. These are key projects and programmes, linked with the ILO’s most fundamental objectives. We are keenly aware of our responsibility to monitor and assess our performance, to learn lessons, and to put those lessons to good use.

These projects have been designed to achieve some important objectives. These achievements include creating jobs for rural people, building skills, and helping women move closer to equality. It is also important to look at the structure that these projects fit into. In fact, these projects twin with the ILO’s overall aims, and provide important practical support for our Decent Work framework. I think it is important that we recognize this, and I would like to thank the Japanese Government again, for agreeing to project designs that support the philosophy that underpins our organization’s work.

The ILO’s primary goal today can be described in two words. We call it Decent Work. By that we mean, that women and men should have access to opportunities for decent and productive work, in conditions of freedom, security, equity and human dignity. Our Director-General has outlined four strategic objectives to help us reach this goal. These are:

To promote and realize fundamental principles and rights at work;
To create greater opportunities for women and men to secure decent employment and income;
To enhance the coverage and effectiveness of social protection for all; and
To strengthen tripartism and social dialogue.

International InFocus programmes are linked with each of these objectives – Promoting the Declaration, Progressive elimination of child labour, promoting development; Reconstruction and employment-intensive investment; Investing in knowledge, skills and employability; Boosting employment through small enterprise development; SafeWork, Security and productivity through safety and health at work; Economic and social security in the 21^st Century; and Strengthening the social partners.

In East and Southeast Asia, these objectives are supported by an emerging awareness of the important role that democracy plays in guaranteeing human rights – and of the value of social dialogue. The ILO is working to strengthen this awareness, and to strengthen the part that social dialogue plays in the process. The Asia Pacific region is home to two thirds of the world’s poor. The ILO aims to combat poverty with jobs, calling for economic policies that produce jobs. We are working to strengthen tripartism, so that democracy is part of the workplace too. We are also working to increase our field activities, particularly those dealing with vulnerable groups.

The ILO Japan Multi-bi Programme has done much to help this process. In the fiscal year 2000, we implemented a total of nine field projects or programmes. I will not address all of these in detail – however I would like to point out a few highlights.

One of the most important developments was the staging of the ILO/Japan/US Asian Regional Seminar on the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. Participants from government, employers and workers’ organizations from 28 countries and regions met in Kathmandu. The end result was a better understanding and acceptance of the value of these principles and rights, and a firmer commitment to implementation. In China, the ILO Japan Project on Strategic Approaches towards Employment Promotion has helped create jobs and income-earning options with small scale loans, collateral and technical support, focusing on working people in rural areas. In Nepal, the Expansion of Employment Opportunities for Women programme has helped rural women achieve higher, more secure incomes. This project does, literally, start at the grass roots. Women learn to cultivate vegetables, and are growing fields of healthy cabbages, mustard and watercress. Then, the project teaches the women how to market their crops, as well as literacy. The women’s incomes are growing, and so is their confidence. This is an important step towards women’s empowerment. Nepal is just one of the countries in which this programme is working. The ILO uses its experience with employment and social development to work together with national governments to fight poverty, and to empower women, economically and socially. Just last week we organized the ILO/Japan/Germany Regional Tripartite Meeting on Social Dialogue in Asia, looking at the growing commitment to good governance in our region, and ways that social dialogue can help us move forward.

Of course, there are other areas in which progress has not been as fast or as extensive as we had expected. For example, the EEOW Indonesia Chapter is behind schedule. Constant change in the Indonesian administration has slowed down our work – however we need to look carefully at ways that we might move forward. Similarly, our feasibility studies on active labour market studies and social protection have also been delayed, but we are addressing the issues to make its implementation more meaningful.

To review is quite literally to look again. I hope that we can do that with every aspect of these programmes and projects, looking not only at what we do – but the way that we do it. We must take the most efficient, the most effective path. That, in my experience, calls for effective teamwork. In this case, we need to make sure that there is good teamwork between the ILO and the Japanese Government. The ILO will continue to ensure that the ILO/Japan Programme and mainstream ILO programming complement one another. We will give careful attention to the integration and use of resources – both the contribution from Japan and the ILO’s own resources. We have already taken significant steps towards this, integrating and consolidating the projects within the framework of ILO goals and strategies and the overall focus of Decent Work. I assure you that those efforts will continue.

Once again, I thank you for your presence here today, and I wish you well as you begin a most important task.