LAHORE: The first-ever South Asia Labour Conference kicked off here on Thursday as delegates from eight countries of the region would put their heads together to identify the challenges in their respective labour markets and find out solutions while sharing each other’s experiences.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif formally opened the three-day tripartite moot being organised by the provincial government in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

High-level representatives of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Afghanistan, Pakistan, European Union, ILO, trade and labour unions of Pakistan, chambers of commerce including ministers and heads of different organisations were in attendance.

Shahbaz said: “The empowerment of youth, promotion of economic and commercial activities, progress of women and protection of rights of the people is essential and these are the common problems of all South Asian countries.”

He hoped that the delegates from Saarc countries would formulate a joint policy to eradicate poverty and unemployment from the region.

EU Ambassador Lars-Gunnar Wigemark, while referring to unutilised female workforce, said no country could afford to leave 50 per cent of its workforce at home and warned that failure to address gender equality would fuel instability and insecurity.

Highlighting the need for labour market regulations, he said national legislation should be combined with implementation through education and effective labour inspections. In the second session, seven parallel working groups were formed which reviewed technical aspects of harmonising labour laws, working conditions, minimum wages, labour migration, health and protection of vulnerable workers (women, children, minorities) in South Asia.

These groups will formulate recommendations based on revision of the labour regulations in the light of international laws.

One of the presentations noted that a majority of workers in South Asia are still in agriculture. There is a high degree of informality and growing informalisation in formal sector.

Considerable segmentation and disparities (gender, social group, geographic) exist.

There are low wages and low productivity jobs, lack of social security and other benefits but progress is being made in some sectors like female labour force participation is rising in Bangladesh and Pakistan, regular work is increasing in India and structural transformation continues.