Promote regional cooperation for salety and health of workers

Participants of the 6th ASEAN-OSHNET Coording Board Meeting in Viet Nam

The 6^th ASEAN-OSHNET Coor­dinating Board Meeting took place in Ha Long city, Quang Ninh province, Vietnam from 17 to 18 March 2005. The ASEAN­ OSHNET members from 10 countries in the region attended the meeting. In particular, the Meeting had the honour to re­ceive Mr. Le Duy Dong, Vice Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs of Vietnam, Vice Chairperson of the Peoples' Com­mittee of Quang Ninh province, Madame Nhu Thi Hong Lien, the ASEAN-OSHNET Director, and the ASEAN secretariat members.

At the meeting, Madam Doan Minh Hoa, Director Gen­eral of Bureau for Safe Work, Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs of Vietnam was elected to be the chair, presid­ing over the meeting. The meet­ ing focused on results of the ac­ tivities implemented in 2004 and discussed the Action Plan for 2004-2007 which had been ap­proved by the 5^th Coordinating Board Meeting in 2004, with the 5 priority activities: ASEAN web­site; OSH training; studies and surveys; OSH standards develop­ment and OSH inspections.

The ASEAN-OSHNET's new website (www.asean-oshnet.net). a forum for exchangitlg ideas on OSH issues at the present is the first item to be mentioned in the report, showing the importance of information activities. Thailand and the ASEAN-OSHNET secretariat was assigned by the meeting to continue with updat­ ing the web sites information and to call for a meeting in the 3^rd quarter of 2005 to provide updat­ed information for the website, in order to meet the current needs of the region in the field of OSH.

Basing on the report by the Philippines on training and at the request of JICA, Japan, the meeting asked the Philippines to carry on with the training pro­grams for member countries to deal with OSH occurrences in small and medium enterprises, with training needs assessment, with training program develop­ ment. Some training programs were introduced: Singapre will conduct a training course for OSH officers in 2006; Indonesia will have a project on training for emergencIes.

In terms of standards, along with the development of the guide­ line systems ofthe ASEAN-OSH­ NET, the ASEAN-OSHNET sec­retariat will discuss with the UN institute for training and research, the project "Capacity building of the global harmonisation on clas­sifying and labelling chemicals in Southeast Asia". On behalf of Viet­ nam, Mr. Vu Nhu Van, Deputy Director General of Bureau for Safe Work, MoLISA had a report on "Survey results on working conditions, OSH in coalmining enterprises in Quang Ninh". Discussions were also on the implementation of the OSH man­agement system (ILO-OSH MS 2001), social responsibilities, HIV/AIDS at the workplaces.

After 2 active working days in a constructive and solidary air, the ASEAN-OSHNET members

reached the agreement in the fi­nal report ofthe 6^th ASEAN -OSH­ NET Coordinating Board Meeting with 59 points in the 14 agenda items.

The 6^ttg ASEAN -OSHNET Co­ ordinating Board Meeting is a real forum for development and sustained cooperation between coun­tries in the region to promote OSH performance. Results of the meet­ ng contribute to improving OSH for the cooperation between ASEAN member countries in the field.

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