Vietnam PM talks labor, migration in Geneva

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on January 26 received the leaders of the International Labor Organization (ILO), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN Office in Geneva.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on January 26 received the leaders of the International Labor Organization (ILO), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN Office in Geneva.

PM Dung is leading a Vietnamese delegation to attend the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, from January 25-31 at the invitation of WEF Chairman Klaus Schwab.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung (R) is welcomed at the Geneva Airport on Jan. 25 (Photo: Vietnam News Agency
Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung (R) is welcomed at the Geneva Airport on Jan. 25 (Photo: Vietnam News Agency

Receiving ILO General Director Juan Somavia, PM Dung said Vietnam has attached great importance to labor issues and job placement, stressing that the nation is implementing a National Target Program to ensure jobs for almost 50 million laborers, including 8 million newly-recruited workers.

In 2010, Vietnam will strive to create employment for 1.6 million laborers and provide vocational training for 1.75 million people to increase the rate of trained workers to more than 40 percent of the total workforce, the PM said.

He told the ILO leader that Vietnam is now improving its labor-related policies and laws as well as strategies on employment and vocational training and development of social security systems until 2020.

The government leader urged the ILO to continue to strengthen its cooperation with Vietnam, based on the National Cooperation Framework on Sustainable Employment for the 2006-2010 period which was signed between the two sides.

Somavia said the ILO will provide more technical and financial assistance to help Vietnam with projects regarding labor markets, amendments to its Labor Code, sustainable employment for the disabled, and UN programs on gender equality and social policy.

Having thanked Vietnam for its positive contributions to the ILO, Somavia said he anticipates that Vietnam will represent ASEAN as a participant in the management board of the organization in the 2011-2014 period.

He expressed his hope that Vietnam would promote cooperation between the ILO and ASEAN and put the contents of the Global Employment Treaty on agenda of the ASEAN Labor Ministers Meeting and the Conference on Human Resources Development which will be held in Vietnam in May 2010 when Vietnam assumes the presidency of the bloc.

At the meeting with IOM General Director William Lacy Swing, PM Dung affirmed that the Vietnamese government is focused on migration management for development purposes.

He stated that the Vietnamese government’s consistent policy is to boost legal migration, especially labor migration, and resolutely fight illegal migration, particularly human trafficking, as well as strengthen cooperation with other countries and international organizations in this field.

PM Dung expressed his wish that the relationship between the IOM and Vietnam will develop further in the future and that Vietnam will continue receiving IOM financial and technical support for the country’s migration management, including the building and implementation of a sustainable migration management policy, enhancing the capacity of State management agencies in this field and the prevention of human trafficking.

For his part, Swing affirmed that the IOM is ready to help Vietnam build a sustainable migration management policy, fight human trafficking, expand labor markets and improve the skills of Vietnamese migrant laborers.

The organization will help the country strengthen the protection of the legitimate rights and interests of migrants, especially Vietnamese guest workers who have lost their jobs and been forced to return home due to difficulties stemming from the global economic crisis, he said.

While meeting with Sergei Ordzhonikidze, UN Under-Secretary-General and Director General of the UN Office at Geneva, and visiting the UN headquarters in Geneva, PM Dung said that Vietnam attaches importance to the UN’s central role in addressing international issues, especially its responses to current global challenges such as the impacts of the world economic-financial crisis, climate change and diseases.

He affirmed that Vietnam has been actively participating in UN activities in the spirit of self-motivation, construction, responsibility and cooperation.

Applauding Vietnam’s role in settling global issues, Ordzhonikidze affirmed his support for Vietnam by encouraging UN bodies to give continued, effective assistance in finance, knowledge and experiences to the country in this new phase of its renewal process and international economic integration as well as in implementing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the “One-UN” initiative.

The international leaders all hailed Vietnam’s contributions to global issues and affirmed their willingness to cooperate and support the country in its priority fields.

They also spoke highly of Vietnam’s contributions to the reform of UN operations and its move to implement the “One-UN” initiative in Vietnam, saying it is the most successful model underway in the country.

PM Dung also visited the Council Hall, where late Prime Minister Pham Van Dong, on behalf of the Vietnamese government, signed the Geneva Accords in 1954.

On the same day, he heard a presentation by a World Trade Organization leader on prospects of the Doha negotiation round and its impacts on the global trade system and visited the Vietnamese Mission in Geneva.

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