On May 12, 2022, the Permanent Secretary of Labour, Mr. Boonchob Suttamanaswong, gave closing remarks at the Labour and Social Protection Network (LSPN) conference. The event was held during May 11-12, 2022, at the Shangri-La Hotel in Bangkok. Assistant to the Permanent Secretary of Labour, Mr. Samat Pattamasukon, and representatives from Thailand’s Ministry of Labour and the APEC Economic Zone attended the meeting. There were 70 participants in the meeting, which took place in a mixed format.
Mr. Boonchob thanked Jessica Russell, LSPN Coordinator from the APEC Secretariat Office, and representatives from the APEC Economic Area for their exchanges in discussions, sharing ideas, knowledge, experiences, and best practices. The conference took place under the theme of “Shaping Smart Citizens with Digitalization and Eco-Friendly Awareness,” with an emphasis on workers’ skill development, adaptation to the changing world of jobs, and labour market volatility due to challenges, technological changes, environmental considerations, and the integration of gender in labour policy.
The Permanent Secretary of Labour added that an adaptive workforce equipped with skills and knowledge tailored to the flexible future working conditions, such as digital literacy, and lifelong learning skills, is necessary for the future of work. In addition, it must pay attention to providing social protection to workers without leaving anyone behind, especially vulnerable groups such as informal workers, women workers, and workers with disabilities. It must spread awareness of the importance of the environment. In addition, experiences were shared about the challenges of COVID-19 that have affected the labour market and the advocacy of labour policies that must adapt to such changes to provide employment following the goals of the policy for workers to have a good quality of life. Labour policy must be continuously developed to effectively solve problems and challenges after the pandemic. They must use Big Data and deliver proactive innovation-based labour policies, relying on the cooperation of all sectors as an effective tool for the revitalization and change of the labour market.
“The exchange of experiences, labour policies, and projects to address workforce problems affected by technological changes and the challenges that have arisen between representatives of the APEC economic zone at this conference, will support the creation of policy ideas for a better future for all workers in the APEC economic area. This event would not be successful without the contributions of all participants who joined,” concluded Mr. Boonchob.
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Division of Public Relations
12 May 2022
