HANOI (ILO News) - The International Labour Organization (ILO) on Monday officially opened its Hanoi office, pledging to work closely with its tripartite constituents from Government, employer and worker groups to promote Decent Work in Vietnam.

Key officials from the Government of Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Planning and Investment, Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and from the employers’ and workers’ organizations, Ambassadors and representatives of the United Nations and major development agencies operating in Vietnam and ILO officials attended the opening.

"The promotion of Decent Work is the overarching mission of our organization," said Yasuyuki Nodera, Regional Director of ILO in Asia and the Pacific.

"The action plan for Decent Work will identify priority areas for joint action and provide guidance for ILO technical cooperation and fund-raising activities, while serving as a basis for consultations between the ILO, its constituents, and other relevant governmental bodies and development partners." Nodera said.

The action plan will use Vietnam’s Ten Year National Development Strategy as a key reference point, while supporting the country’s implementation of its Comprehensive Poverty Reduction and Growth Strategy, along with its commitment to the United Nations’(UN) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Viet Nam Development Goals.

The mission of the ILO is to promote opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. Work, and more specifically Decent Work, is central to people’s aspirations for a better life, and is seen as an essential element in the bid to find practical solutions to poverty and insecurity.

Four strategic objectives support the ILO’s mission and guide its work:

• Promoting and realising standards and fundamental principles and rights at work
• Creating greater opportunities for women and men to secure decent employment
• Enhancing the coverage and effectiveness of social protection for all, and;
• Strengthening tripartism and social dialogue

The ILO fulfils its mission through the setting of international labour standards on a wide spectrum of work-related activities and through the provision of technical assistance and advisory services to its tripartite constituents, comprising governments, employer and worker groups within ILO member States.

The level of technical cooperation between ILO and Viet Nam has grown progressively since 1992 in response to increasing demands from constituents. The basic thrust of the ILO’s presence in Viet Nam is to provide assistance and advice to the Government, employer and worker groups on employment-related issues. ILO’s main partners in Vietnam are MOLISA, the Viet Nam General Confederation of Labour, the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance.

The ILO’s projects in Viet Nam are grouped within four main areas:

• Institutional Capacity Building
• Labour Markets, Employment and Income
• Social Protection
• Social Dialogue

Viet Nam resumed its membership of the ILO in 1992 and an agreement on opening an office in Hanoi was signed in February 2002. Also in 2002, the Government of Vietnam was elected to serve a three-year term as a deputy member of the ILO’s Governing Body (its main executive body).