The International Labour Organization (ILO) said it has signed a Plan of Joint Activities with the executive bureau of the Council of Ministers of Labour and Social Affairs of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC).

The Plan includes four major activities to be implemented during 2017, in the areas of small and medium enterprise promotion in the GCC labour market, recruitment policies and managing migrant worker issues, employment and decent work policies, and improvement of labour dispute resolution capacity, according to ILO.

"The issues are very important to both the ILO and the GCC countries. We look forward to working with the Executive Bureau to implement the recommendations of the joint activities and workshops," remarked Ruba Jaradat, the ILO regional director for Arab States after inking the pact with Amer Al Hajri, the director general of the executive bureau on the sidelines of the APRM, the ILO-organized labour conference for Asia in Bali, Indonesia.

"We in the Regional Office for the Arab States in Beirut are ready to provide all required technical support, noted Jaradat.

"We would also like to thank the GCC Council of Ministers of Labour for accepting to host us in Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait to implement these projects. We look forward to the implementation of these activities in 2017," she said.

"We trust this will be the beginning of increased cooperation between the ILO and the GCC in the coming years," stated Jaradat.

Al Hajri stressed the importance of bilateral relations with the ILO. "Developed every two years, the Plan of Joint Activities is an opportunity to share experiences, concerns and challenges with the ILO," he stated during the signing ceremony.

"Over the past years, previous plans have achieved a number of successes to build the capacity of workers in GCC ministries of labour to deal with technical issues in the highest professional manner and in accordance with international standards," he noted.

According to him, the plan also includes promoting nationalisation of the Gulf labour markets. "Providing jobs, productive employment and decent work for women and men requires sustained economic growth. There is therefore a need to take measures to address job growth in in order to promote inclusive growth and encourage national workers to engage more fully in the private sector,” he added.-TradeArabia News Service