ILO and Singapore renew Partnership Agreement to promote decent work in Southeast Asia

1. GENEVA (ILO news) – The International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Singapore Ministry of Manpower have renewed their Partnership Agreement to promote decent work in Southeast Asia.
2. Under the Agreement, the ILO and the Singapore Ministry of Manpower will work together on activities related to occupational safety and health, tripartism and social dialogue.
3. The activities proposed include preparation and development of statistics and new data collection methods for Occupational Safety and Health (OSH), a regional workshop on OSH and social dialogue, and the organisation of the XXI World Congress on Safety, currently scheduled to be held in September 2017 in Singapore. It will also support the work of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC).
4. The goals of the renewed Partnership Agreement are also in line with ILO’s agenda of promoting decent work for all. It was finalised in consultation with the workers’ and employers’ organisations of Singapore. 
5. The Agreement was signed by Ms Tomoko Nishimoto, ILO Assistant Director-General and Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, and Mr Aubeck Kam, Permanent Secretary of the Singapore Ministry of Manpower, on Monday 6 June 2016 at a ceremony held during the 105th International Labour Conference (ILC) in Geneva, Switzerland.
6. “We are delighted that Singapore has renewed the partnership,” Ms Nishimoto said. “The partnership agreement that we are signing today will strengthen the ability of the ASEAN countries to promote the Decent Work Agenda. It will anchor Decent Work into the ASEAN regional integration process. By working together like this we can contribute to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals, in particularly SDG 8, which focuses on the promotion of sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.” 
7. Mr Kam said: “The renewal of the partnership agreement with the ILO reflects Singapore’s continued commitment to working with the ILO and other ASEAN countries to improve labour and workplace practices in the Southeast Asian region.”
8. The Partnership Agreement between the ILO and the Singapore Ministry of Manpower was first signed in 2011 and renewed in 2014. The activities already organised through the agreement mechanism include technical cooperation to improve occupational safety and health in Brunei, workshop on resolving employment disputes for ASEAN countries, Singapore-Norway Third Country Training Programme on the Decent Work Agenda, training-of-trainers workshop on Risk Assessment, Control and Management in the Philippines, training for labour inspectors in Vietnam, study visits by Vietnamese delegations and Cambodian delegations on the topics of industrial relations, National Wages Council and Labour Court.