The 49th Session of Arab Labor Conference Commences in Cairo
Publication date: 18 June 2023 - 29 Dhu al-Qi'dah 1444
Today, in Cairo, the 49th session of Arab Labor Conference commenced with participation of the Prime Minister, and heads and members of delegations from employers’ organizations and trade unions from 21 Arab countries together with the Secretariat General of the League of Arab States and the Arabian and international organizations.
The Kingdom’s delegation was headed by H.E., the HRSD Deputy Minister for Labor Sector, Dr. Abdullah Abu Thaneen.
The opening session of the Conference witnessed a documentary on the Arab Labor Organization (ALO) activities over the labor and workers issues, together with the achievements made over the past year.
H.E., the Minister of Labor, Hassan Shehatah, gave an opening speech in which he expressed the necessity for giving priority to the joint Arab labor in order to be an honorable model of a great civilization which can continue building the future. He stressed the necessity for accelerating the Arabian economic integration and moving towards unity for progress, development, knowledge, creativity and innovation. Besides, he wished that this Conference may produce recommendations that contribute to the social dialogue system in the Arabian countries in order to cope with the level of the challenges posed by the new phenomena in the Arabian and international labor markets.
H.E., Dr. Abu Thaneen, during the general session of the Conference, gave a speech by which he stressed the importance of intensifying efforts for relieving and reducing the consequences of the challenges witnessed by the labor market in the light of the accelerating economic and technological transformations.
His Excellency also indicated the ALO Director-General’s successful choice of the subject matter of the report of this year on “Social Dialogue between Present Challenges and Future Prospects” and the importance of the social dialogue in developing the labor market policies.
He also stressed that the HRSD system seeks to enhance and develop the social dialogue and holds more than 12 dialogues per year between the parties of production, along with 100 workshops specialized in the labor market issues. In his speech, he indicated a number of initiatives which support the social dialogue in collaboration with the King Abdul Aziz Center for National Dialogue (KACND).
In the Conference whose events will continue until May 29, it is expected that the participants will discuss the ALO’s Director-General, entitled “Social Dialogue between Present Challenges and Future Prospects” and also, some issues regarding the Arab World and the regulatory files of the ALO’s work mechanisms, along with discussing the arrangement and coordination of the Arabian participation in the events of the International Labor Conference (ILC) organized by the International Labor Organization (ILO), of United Nations, expected to be held in Geneva over the period from next June 5 to16.
It is worth mentioning that the ALO is one of the Arab League’s organizations. It was established in 1965 as the first specialized Arabian organization concerned with labor and workers affairs in the Arab World.