Yangon, May 11 - ASEAN Labour Ministers will convene here from 14 to 15 May 1999 to discuss the impact of the regional financial and economic crisis on labour and employment in ASEAN. The Ministerial Meeting will be preceded by the Senior Labour Officials Meeting and the ASEAN Sub-Committee on Labour Affairs.

The 13th ASEAN Labour Ministers Meeting is the first ever ASEAN ministerial meeting in which all ten ASEAN Member Countries are participating fully, since Cambodia's admission into ASEAN on 30 April 1999.

High on the agenda of the Meeting will be the sharing of each Member Country's experiences on addressing the impact of the financial and economic crisis on labour and employment and actions taken at both national and ASEAN levels to overcome the impact of the crisis. Actions and recommendations will also be made on how best to translate into reality the priorities on labour and employment stated in the Hanoi Declaration and the Hanoi Plan of Action, adopted by ASEAN leaders at the Sixth ASEAN Summit in December 1998 in Hanoi.

ASEAN Ministers will review that progress of follow-up actions taken on the recommendations by the 12th ASEAN Labour Ministers Meeting held last April in Hanoi, which include, among others, initiatives undertaken in the fields of occupational safety and health, informal sector development - particularly the promotion of self-employment - as well as human resources development planning, and cooperation in the promotion and encouragement of skills in ASEAN. The ASEAN Sub-Committee on Labour Affairs and the Senior Labour Officials Meeting are expected to focus on ways of enhancing the quality of the ASEAN workforce and on measures to promote employment as part of the overall recovery process.

Through sharing of information and joint activities, ASEAN Labour Ministers will be able to address the challenges posed by the financial and economic crisis, and contribute to the economic recovery of the region.