Labour Market Issues for the ASEAN Region

should significantly boost economic development across the ten nations of the region. Governments at the individual and joint levels are seeking ways in which they can improve the productivity of their manufacturing and services sectors, while also promoting higher value-added activities within their territories and by the firms based there. Doing so relies upon the creation and fostering of a high-quality ASEAN labour market but, currently, insufficient attention is being paid to the integration of education and industrial sectors and to the production of managers able to work within international-standard companies and to develop within them. Additional areas of concern the role and management of migrant labour in the region and the degree to which freedom of association and unionization has an impact upon productivity and the promotion of social as well as economic development. This paper considers the principal issues and prospects concerning labour markets across ASEAN and highlights the areas in which ASEAN-wide policies are currently working well and areas in which the recently signed agreement with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) indicate improved co-operation is required