Can the AEC
deliver for ASEAN’s people?
Yoshiteru Uramoto ;
ILO assistant director-general
and regional director for Asia and the Pacific
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JAKARTA
POST, 20 Agustus 2014
Policymakers talk a lot about the impact of the ASEAN Economic
Community (AEC) in 2015. But the real question is, how will this AEC affect
the 600 million people who live in the region? Together the International
Labor Organization and the Asian Development Bank set out to find some
answers, and this week we delivered our findings in a report presented to the
ASEAN Secretary-General Le Luong Minh in Jakarta.
Ordinary men and women first and foremost experience economic
change though the labor market. What matters to them is whether they can find
a good job that offers security, pays decent wages in decent conditions and
whether, in time, their children will be able to do the same.
Our findings are encouraging. If managed well over the next
decade, the AEC could boost the region’s economies by 7.1 percent by 2025 and
generate 14 million additional jobs. However, there are some big “ifs” and
“buts”.
While some sectors will flourish others are likely to see job
losses, and those workers will not necessarily have the right skills to seize
the new opportunities created by the AEC.
In addition, while improved productivity may bring increases in
incomes for some, this could bypass the large majority of people, unless more
effective wage-setting institutions are created.
ASEAN needs to act to realize true gender equality and more
respect for the rights of migrant workers.
To realize the full potential of closer economic integration,
countries across the region need to take decisive action, right now. This is
the core, take-away message from our study, “ASEAN Community 2015: Managing
integration for better jobs and shared prosperity”.
Here are three priorities for ASEAN’s leaders to focus on.
The first priority should be to proactively manage and
facilitate structural change. This means not only investing in infrastructure
and implementing sound industrial and sectoral policies.
It also means improving the “soft” infrastructure — investing in
better education and vocational training systems so that workers’ skills
match those that enterprises need.
To be successful, this adjustment process will also require
support for small and medium-sized enterprises and for the most vulnerable
members in our communities. One route is through stronger social protection systems.
Second, economic gains must lead to shared prosperity. By
linking wages to productivity gains, workers can benefit from economic
progress while enterprises can remain competitive.
This requires sound wage-setting systems that can deliver
minimum wages that protect the most vulnerable, and stronger collective
bargaining procedures that allow employers and unions to negotiate
improvements in working conditions and to find solutions that raise
productivity.
But, shared prosperity is not just about creating better systems
for spreading the wealth. It’s also about equitable development and reaching
more people. So ASEAN needs to act to realize true gender equality and more
respect for the rights of migrant workers.
Finally, ASEAN countries need to strengthen regional
cooperation. Some of the architecture for this is already in place. For
example, ASEAN’s leaders agreed to “promote decent, humane, productive,
dignified and remunerative employment for migrant workers” in the Cebu
Declaration. And in the ASEAN Declaration on Social Protection, they set out
the principle of “equitable access to social protection”.
What is needed now is concrete action to turn these documents
into practical change. Cooperation also needs to expand into other areas,
such as skills recognition, labor market information, research and analysis.
The ASEAN Economic Community 2015 will place ASEAN at a
crossroads. If these priorities are effectively addressed, the region can
make great strides towards equitable economic development and shared
prosperity.
But if ASEAN’s leaders fail to act, the AEC will increase
inequalities and will bypass the majority of the region’s population. ●
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