03 October 2003
MEDIA ALERT
NEW ZEALAND TO HOST FIRST ILO SUB-REGIONAL
TRIPARTITE FORUM ON DECENT WORK
6-8 October, 2003, Waipuna Hotel and Conference Centre, Mt Wellington, Auckland
NEW ZEALAND (ILO News) – Representatives of government, employers’ and workers’ groups in Australia, Fiji, Indonesia,
Kiribati, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste and Vanuatu will join the
International Labour Organization (ILO)’s first ever South-East Asia and the Pacific Sub-Regional Tripartite Forum on
Decent Work in Auckland during 6-8 October.
The forum is aimed at enabling participants to identify common issues and solutions in developing and implementing
National Plans of Action for Decent Work so as to share best practices and lessons learned.
Dr James Buwalda, Chief Executive, New Zealand Department of Labour, said New Zealand is pleased to be hosting the
Forum, having been a Deputy Member of the ILO’s Governing Body during the periods 1990-1996 and 1999-2005, as a
representative of the Far Eastern and Pacific Sub-Group of the Asian Region.
The primary goal of the ILO is to promote opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work in
conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. The goal does not just mean the creation of jobs, but the
creation of jobs of acceptable quality. This means that the quantity of employment cannot be divorced from its quality.
All societies have a notion of decent work, but the quality of employment can mean many things. It could relate to
different forms of work, and also to different conditions of work, as well as perception of value and satisfaction. The
need today is to devise social and economic systems that ensure basic security and employment, while remaining capable
of adaptation to rapidly changing circumstances in a highly competitive global market.
The forum fulfills one of the recommendations arising at the Thirteenth ILO Asian Regional Meeting (ARM) in Bangkok in
2001, which urged countries in the Sub-Region to define, through a tripartite process, National Plans of Action for
Decent Work. Outputs from the forum will be used as inputs to the next ARM in 2005.
The hosting of the forum in New Zealand reinforces the country’s active involvement and support for numerous ILO
activities, including the support of several technical projects, including an initiative aimed at combatting child
labour in the Pacific through its Overseas Development Programme.
New Zealand has sent a tripartite delegation to the International Labour Conference (ILC) in Geneva since 1935, and has
attended ILO Governing Body meetings for the past 12 years.
In August 2002, New Zealand established a Pacific Network to ensure greater levels of cooperation and to provide a forum
for the ILO’s member States in the Pacific for sharing information and feedback on the various activities of the ILO’s
Governing Body. New Zealand has contributed expertise towards the development of infrastructure for employment relations
and occupational safety and health (OSH).
Dr Buwalda and Mr Yasuyuki Nodera, Regional Director, ILO’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, will deliver
opening speeches, while Mr Werner Blenk, Sub-Regional Director, ILO Sub-Regional Office for South-East Asia and the
Pacific, will provide an overview of the substance of the forum.
Media representatives are cordially invited to attend selected sessions of the forum. For further details, or to
arrange interviews with delegates, please contact:
New Zealand
Barry Akers
Senescall Akers Limited