Nearly 4,000 delegates at Global Jobs Crises Summit

Chamikara Weerasinghe

Labour Relations and Foreign Employment Minister Athauda Seneviratna on Sunday said before leaving for Geneva to participate the Global Jobs Crises Summit organized by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), that Sri Lanka is in a favorable position to get full support of the ILO and the governments of other countries at the three-day summit after its success last month at the UN Human Rights Council.

The Global Jobs Crises Summit is held from June 15 to 17 as a part of ILO’s 98 th Annual Conference that will run in Geneva until June 19. About 4,000 delegates and advisers, including Government representatives, leaders of workers and employers from 183 member states of the ILO, will participate at the conference with a focus to discuss policies that are being implemented at national and international levels to address the global jobs crisis.

Minister Athauda Seneviratna said, Sri Lanka will be in a position to prevent a potential jobs crises in Sri Lanka and to promote jobs and decent work for the public with the support of the ILO and the EU.

He said the actions and efforts of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Government have played a major role to keep the GSP plus scheme provided for Sri Lanka by the EU, this far while some political elements and their trade unions have been out to cause a censure to the scheme to unsettle the Government.

The EU announced on Saturday it has decided to renew the GSP plus scheme provided for Sri Lanka for another three years.

Sri Lanka had reportedly earned 2.9 billion US dollars last year as its export income, the highest ever, through the EU markets, of which the apparel industry has contributed 1.4 billion US dollars, according to Export Development Board sources.

Minister Seneviratna said he would highlight in his presentation at the ILO Jobs Crises Summit, that continuation of GSP plus scheme will be beneficial to countries like Sri Lanka to ensure the job security of its work force and prevent a potential jobs crises in Sri Lanka.

As pointed out by economic experts, Sri Lanka is utilizing only 61 percent of the GSP plus Scheme provided for the country because of the problems associated with its rules of origin.