ASEAN to upgrade workforce skill

ASEAN to upgrade workforce skill

KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Southeast Asian labor ministers
agreed on Thursday to upgrade the skills of their workforces to
counter the U.S. economic slowdown and urged the ILO not to
punish Myanmar over forced labor.

Ministers at their annual meeting here believed "multi-
skilling" of workers would keep them employed amid recent
downsizing by multinational corporations, said Malaysian Human
Resources Minister Fong Chan Onn.

"Most countries feel that the most effective way is to upgrade
skills, to further train and retrain our workers so that they
have a broader set of skills to meet the challenges," he told a
press conference.

Fong said the impact of the U.S. slowdown varied in each
country, with Singapore reporting "serious concerns" due to its
focus on technology.

"We will see how best we can cooperate in training and
retraining so that our workers can then become much more
multiskilled-based," he said.

Ministers hoped the impact would lessen towards the end of the
year amid reports that the U.S. economy may recover by then.

The 10-member grouping, which will hold talks on Friday with
officials from China, Japan and South Korea, would seek help from
the three countries to counter the U.S. slowdown, Fong said.
"China is a big market, Japan has a lot of expertise... we will
see what they can do to help."

He said the region needed to "go full-scale" in moving towards
becoming knowledge economies as its advantage of cheap labor has
been eroded by the advent of new technologies.

Ministers also backed what they called Myanmar's move to ban
forced labor and urged the International Labor Organization (ILO)
not to impose punitive actions.

Last November, the ILO called on its members to review
relations with Myanmar and to ensure that these ties did not help
to continue or extend the practice of forced labor.

Fong said Myanmar's labor minister Maj. Gen. Tin Ngwe briefed
the meeting and told it that the ILO had sent two technical
missions to Myanmar.

"We feel that Myanmar has taken all the necessary legislative
and administrative actions to eliminate forced labor and
therefore ILO should consider that very positively and support
those measures," Fong said. "Our appeal is for ILO not to take
any punitive actions."

Ministers also reaffirmed their opposition to any moves by
western countries and international organizations to link labor
standards to financial aid or trade, Fong added.

Bad globalization

Earlier Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi said
on Thursday that anti-globalization protests at international
meetings will only get worse unless world leaders tackle the
issues raised by demonstrators.

Speaking at the opening of a meeting of southeast Asian labor
ministers, Abdullah said the region was still paying the social
and economic costs of the 1997-1998 financial crisis.

He blamed a lack of control over highly leveraged financial
funds, flows of "hot money" and overly rapid financial
liberalization as factors at the heart of a crisis that
debilitated many economies in the region.

"It was an example of bad globalization. It demonstrated how a
liberalized, laissez-faire global economy could affect the lives
of millions of people," he told delegates from the 10 ASEAN
member countries.

"If issues that arose out of the crisis are not addressed more
seriously, I am afraid that the revolt that has begun against
globalization that resulted in violent demonstrations that began
in Seattle, will grow bigger and bigger."

World Trade Organization talks in the U.S. west coast city of
Seattle ended in acrimony and without agreement in December 1999
after days of street protests by non governmental organizations
(NGOs) representing worker, environmental and social groups.

"The ragtag group of NGOs have become more organized, militant
and knowledgeable about the issues. Their growing opposition is
partly a reflection of the bad aspects of globalization,"
Abdullah said.

A slump in the Thai baht in 1997, fueled by rampant debt and a
balance of payments crunch following years of rapid growth,
triggered copy-cat crises among its neighbors.

Stocks markets and currencies dropped as foreign investors
pulled out, leaving social upheaval and job losses in their wake.