PRESS RELEASE | PR-133-2024
SINGAPORE, 05 November 2024 – Philippine Labor Secretary and outgoing ASEAN Labour Ministers Meeting (ALMM) Chairperson Bienvenido E. Laguesma met with counterparts for the 28th ALMM in Singapore on 30 October 2024.
Singapore’s Minister for Manpower and Chair of the 28th ALMM, Dr. Tan See Leng, welcomed the representatives from ASEAN Member States, Timor-Leste and the ASEAN Secretariat. In his opening remarks, Minister Tan reflected on the region’s shared achievements and the progress it had made in building resilient workforces. He also expressed Singapore’s commitment to fortifying inter-state cooperation in the region’s bid to address the challenges of the future world of work. He added that through enhanced skills development, workers’ rights protection and decent work advocacy, the region’s workforce should be able to thrive amidst the fast-evolving labor milieu.
As the 28th ALMM also coincided with the 50th anniversary of ASEAN labor cooperation, the opening ceremony included a commemorative video highlighting the major milestones in the region’s labor efforts. Spotlighted in the video were improved workplace safety, elevated standards for decent work, and strengthened workplace safety. In another commemorative initiative, ASEAN labor ministers each contributed a document or a piece of memorabilia to a time capsule. Sealed during the opening ceremony and transported to Jakarta, Indonesia to be displayed at the ASEAN Secretariat until 2049 when it will be opened by future ASEAN labor ministers, the time capsule symbolizes the enduring ASEAN commitment to improve the lives and livelihoods of the region’s workers.
The heads of the region’s labor ministries, guided by the theme “Strengthening Resilience and Promoting Innovation”, then presented and exchanged views on the challenges and prospects brought about by the rapidly changing global labor landscape.
Secretary Laguesma, in his ministerial statement, underlined the need to identify new frontiers for cooperation in consideration of the technological advancements, demographic developments, and emerging labor issues currently facing the region. He identified possible areas of regional collaboration, namely, (1) operationalizing the portable social protection for migrants, (2) reviewing regulatory frameworks, (3) considering the emergence of online recruitment, platform work and the care economy, (4) looking into active and passive labor market measures combined with social protection that mitigate risks and vulnerabilities, (5) enhancing upward mobility in the labor market, and further (6) strengthening of just transitions.
Secretary Laguesma added that the importance of workers can never be overemphasized in the ASEAN’s labor agenda, arguing that workers of all ages drive development and growth. As such, “labor issues must be addressed in a way that optimizes the opportunities, productive capacities, and benefits of workers and their families while strengthening the ability of enterprises to innovate and create better work and income opportunities.” He closed his statement with a profound appreciation of the support and assistance generously extended by his fellow ASEAN labor ministers and the ASEAN Secretariat during the 27th ALMM leadership of the Philippines.
The discussions continued the next day, 31 October 2024, along with labor chiefs of China, Japan and South Korea. The 13th ALMM Plus Three centered on the progress made in strengthening the cooperation between the regional bloc and its three dialogue partners in the labor sector.
Joining Secretary Laguesma were Undersecretary Benedicto Ernesto R. Bitonio, Jr., Undersecretary Carmela I. Torres, and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) Director General Jose Francisco B. Benitez. Labor Undersecretaries Bitonio and Torres were the Philippines’ representatives to the Senior Labor Officials and other ALMM-related meetings.
The region’s labor chiefs will meet again in 2026 in Thailand for the 29th ALMM. (END)
