Myanmar became a member of ILO at an early stage and cooperated with ILO heartily
As in the past, Myanmar will cooperate with ILO in the future

Nay Pyi Taw, 17 Dec— The following is the clarification made by Deputy Minister for Labour Maj-Gen Aung Kyi on development of employment opportunities and cooperation between ILO and Myanmar at the press conference held today. Development of Employment opportunities in Myanmar.

The Minister for National Planning and Economic Development has already made clarification that the State Peace and Development Council has been making great efforts in prevalence of law and order throughout the nation, community peace and tranquillity, uplift of living standard of the people, smoothing the transportation, building a modern developed nation, and other development works. As a result of these activities, there has been much progress in both internal and overseas employment opportunities in Myanmar. According to ASEAN Finance and Macroeconomic Surveillance Unit Database, Myanmar becomes the fourth country which has the least unemployment, among the 10 ASEAN member states. I would like to summarize the progress in employment opportunities in Myanmar sector by sector.

In agricultural sector of Myanmar, development activities that have been carried out include the reclamation of cultivable land resources from fallow and waste land in deepwater areas, the construction of new reservoirs and dams, doublecropping and mixed cropping, cultivation of annual and perennial plants, switch from shifting cultivation into terrace farming, utilization of modern methods, cultivation of poppy-substitute crops, enabling private entrepreneurs to make investment in agricultural industry, and opening the Agricultural Bank and the Seed Bank.

In livestock and fisheries sector, poultry, pigs, fish, and shrimp have been increasingly raised and bred in separate farms as well as in combination with agriculture. Accelerated efforts are being made in fresh water fisheries and marine fisheries, rice-fish farming, breeding of turtles, crocodile breeding, modern bee-keeping, special zoning for agriculture, livestock and fisheries. Consequently, production has exceeded the local consumption and the surplus has been exported to foreign countries.

In forest sector, extended activities are being carried out in setting up of forest plantations, greening tasks of the central dry regions, reorganizing protected public forests, reafforestation, reclamation of reserved natural forests and natural parks, protection and main-tenance of the natural environment, establishing places for recreation and establishment of nursery forest gardens.

In mining sector, extended activities are being performed in exploration, production, extraction, purification, and marketing of metals, gems, pearl, and salt and marine chemicals.

In industrial sector, new mills and factories have been constructed, the existing factories have been upgraded, Industrial Development Banks have been established, 18 industrial zones have been established to encourage private industries collectively.

In energy and electrical power sector, crude oil and natural gas exploration projects and factories, fertilizer plants and methanol plants have been built. There are also extended cooperation with foreign oil companies, and offshore natural gas exploration. Medium-scale and small-scale hydroelectric power stations, gas turbine power stations, and recycle power plants utilizing the waste heat, have been constructed for electricity generation.

In transport sector, highways, overpass, river-crossing bridges have been built. For rail transportation, new railroads and railway bridges have been built and extended works has been done in the production, repair and maintenance of locomotives and carriages. In water transport, tasks are being carried out for smooth riverine transport. Besides natural disaster prevention services, new vessels have been built, and old ones repaired and maintained.

Modern ports for loading and unloading cargoes, docks for general cargo transport, warehouses, and dockyards have been built. For air transport, there are airport construction projects and airport extension projects.

In trade sector, internal and external trade, and border trade have been extended. The newly opened border trade offices, departmental stores, Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank, and ports can also be seen.

In the rural and urban sector, there can be seen the increased social infrastructures, such as buildings, schools, universities, degree colleges, colleges, clinics, and hospitals, which show significant development. Moreover, urban infrastructures have been developed due to establishment of new satellite towns, and extension of urban areas.

As mentioned above, there has been all-round development in each sector of the nation. Myanmar has attracted many tourists from foreign countries since it is peaceful and safe, inaddition to having fine weather, beautiful scenery, honest and hospitable Myanmar people, and wealth of valuable natural resources.

It can numerically be seen that in the agricultural sector, 190 new dams, and 298 river water pumping stations have already been implemented. There have been built 999 rural dams, along with artesian wells and small-scale dams.

As a result, in comparison with 1988 figures, the sown acreage has increased to 29.3 million from 19.9 million. And the annual cultivation capacity has risen to 46.9 million acres from 23.8 millions acres. The sown acreage of monsoon paddy has grown to 16.8 million acres from 11 million. In the past, summer paddy was not cultivated. But, due to the water supply projects, summer paddy is now grown on 3.4 million acres, and other crops have also been grown by double-cropping and mixed cropping. Thus the overall cultivation capacity has increased to 157 per cent, and there have been more employment opportunities in agricultural sector.

Similarly, per acre yield of crops are on the sharp increase. The output of beans and pulses has increased to 11 times, edible oil, three times and kitchen crops, four times. In the industrial sector, because 18 industrial zones have been established and the number of State-owned factories and private factories is over 42,000, the employment opportunities have been increased.

Moreover, in the sectors of livestock breeding, forestry, communication, electric power, energy, education, science and technology, health, transportation, hotel and tourism and urban sector, developments have been achieved by many times compared with the situations in 1988. As a consequence of these developments, employment opportunities in

the country also increase significantly. Much improvement is also obtained in the technological expertise and performance of human resources.

A total of over 34.7 million of working age groups are working throughout the country in 2005-2006. There are over 22.3 million workers in agricultural sector, over 4.8 million in industrial sector and over 7.5 million in service sector. According to data, the comparison with 1988 figures show that the workers in local employment in agricultural sector increase over two times, those in industrial sector over 2.5 times, those in service sector nearly two times. Thus, overall employment opportunities increased by more than twice of that in 1988-89. To enjoy more overseas employment opportunities, the licences were issued to 70 overseas employment agencies and 28,689 employment opportunities to 14 countries were created. Temporary passports have been issued to those who were illegally working in Thailand to become legal ones starting form 6th November, 2006. The process will be more accelerated in the future. Moreover, new workers will be employed legally in Thailand through the border entrances in cost-effective way according to the coordination and cooperation between the two governments. We hope this can begin in near future. So it can be said that there will be more overseas employment opportunities.

It can be seen that the united, unswerving and self-reliant efforts and cooperation among the people, the government and the Tatmadaw, under the guidance of the Head of the State, is the main reason for these increase in employment opportunities in agricultural sector , industrial sector and service sector.

In the second part, I would like to explain the status on the cooperation between Myanmar and ILO.

Past relationship between ILO and Myanmar

The Union of Myanmar regained her independence on 4 January, 1948, and became a member of the United Nations on 19 April, 1948. In the same year on 18 May she also became a member of International Labour Organization (ILO). At present, Myanmar has ratified 19 of the ILO Conventions adopted.

As a member of ILO, Myanmar has never failed to submit annual reports, to be in line with the provisions under the ILO constitution, always replying on the comments of the Committee of Experts. Moreover, Myanmar has also submitted annual reports of the un-ratified Conventions. Myanmar has never failed to fulfill her contributions according to the obligation of a member country. Myanmar delegates attend the International Labour Conference regularly. ILO has been providing technical assistance and technical experts to the areas of employment creation, employment training, working condition and environment, industrial relations and social security, etc.

Charter of the United Nations and Objectives of ILO

Myanmar is a member of ILO and a member of the United Nations as well. It is explicitly prescribed in Article 2 (7) of the United Nations Charter that the United Nations has no authority to intervenetion in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of a State. In accordance with the Article 1 of the Agreement reached between ILO and the United Nations, ILO is treated as a Specialized Agency of the United Nations. Hence, as ILO is a Specialized Agency which is cooperating not only with the UN but also with the Economic and Social Council of the UN, it is obligated to abide by the UN Charter.

Ratification of Convention No 29 Related to Forced Labour by Myanmar

Convention No 29 related to forced labour is adopted in the year 1930 and Myanmar ratified this convention in March 1955. But Article 2(2) of Convention 29 clearly mentioned the work of service not to be included in forced or compulsory labour. The Ministry of Home Affairs has already issued Order No 1/99 and Order Supplementing Order No 1/99 to be compiled with the above Convention.

During 35 years from 1955 to 1990, utilization of labour contribution was arranged in cases of emergency during the military operations. After 1990s, 17 armed groups have exchanged their arms with peace and joined hands with Tatmadaw Government in endeavoring the nation building tasks. Hence, presently as there is no heavy military operation and forced labour practice is strictly prohibited, there is no longer use of other working forces.

Origin of the Problems (Pyithit Nyunt Wai)

What is unusual here is that ILO has never made any complaint before 1990 when a host of labour contributions were used. But there are now crying out at a time when there is practically no forced labour. We began to think why they are highlighting forced labour only now. As a matter of fact, it all began with Maung Maung (a) Pyithit Nyunt Wai, who departed from Myanmar to avoid legal action for his commitment of misappropriation at the Gem Corporation in 1988. The Ministry of Home Affairs has already declared FTUB as a terrorist organization in its Notification 1/ 2006 dated 12-4-2006 since Maung Maung (a) Pyithit Nyunt Wai has abetted the demolitionists to perpetrate disturbances besides being a fugitive.

Taking FTUB as a base, Maung Maung (a) Pyithit Nyunt Wai contacted ICFTU, which is influential in ILO and sent false news and information. He has constantly been doing these things so that ILO can take action against Myanmar. Based on his wrong information, ICFTU submitted the reports to ILO that accused Myanmar of committing forced labour. ILO formed a commission of Inquiry (COI) to investigate the situation of forced labour in Myanmar. But Myanmar did not recognize the commission. When a request to visit the country was made by the commission, it was rejected because it would not contribute towards resolving the case and it would interfere in the internal affairs of the country. Nevertheless, the commission visited along the border areas and submitted a report based upon wrong information and unfair allegations. The commission prepared a report and Myanmar was urged to follow the three recommendations.

Although Myanmar did not recognize the Commission she implemented the three recommendations to her fullest possible extent as a gesture of respect for ILO.

In implementation of the first recommendation

Under the instruction of the State Peace and Development Council, the Ministry of Home Affairs has issued Order No 1/99 and Supplementtary Order to No 1/99, not to exercise forced labour practices in Myanmar.

In implementation of the second recommendation

The above orders were translated into English as well as ethnic languages and distributed down to the district, township, ward/village-tract levels in all 14 States/ Divisions. Convention 29 Implementation Committee including the Deputy Ministers for Home Affairs and Labour, the Director-General from the Department of General Administration and the Director-General from the Ministry of Labours was formed for systematically carrying out the elimination forced labour. Besides, Field Observation Teams( FOT) headed by Senior Officials from the Ministry of Labour made inspection visit to various States and Divisions. The FOT teams have visited the most alleged areas and provided knowledge concerning forced labour to people. An ILO Liaison Officer also participated in an observer status at some workshops.

In Implementation of the Third recommendation

50 cases received from ILO Liaison Officer were investigated and if the allegations were found to be true, there are evidence of actions taken against him/her whether they are Civil or Military Personnel according to the provisions under the Article 25 of the Convention No 29 , Article 374 of Penal Code and existing laws.

In addition, to show a gesture of cooperation with ILO, Myanmar has received and discussed with ILO TCM four times, HLT one time, vHLT one time and ILO Mission four times since the year 2000. Myanmar has also accepted the appointment of ILO Liaison Officer as an implementation of the resolution adopted by ILO 2000 and recommendation of HLT, and this shows the willingness of cooperation with ILO. Nonetheless, on the part of ILO, it has never fulfilled the following recommendations by HLT.

- Myanmar needs help to promote its economy because the economic growth plays a part in eradication of forced labour, and

- The international community needs constructive engagement with Myanmar.

The instances of Myanmar's taking actions against those who have committed forced labour under the existing laws indicated that Myanmar respects Convention 29 and does not encourage forced labour.

When action is taken against those who are found guilty of committing forced labour , it should be taken into account from the judicial point of view, why action should not be taken against a person or an organization that files a false complaint with the intention to defame or to damage the accused. Under Section 182 (b), 420, 468, 499 and 500 of the 1860 Penal Code , it is stated that a person is liable to be taken actions against him or her if he commits deception and does damage to others. This law is still in force, and in the international community, too, so those who suffer have the right to sue a person for defamation and damage.

Furthermore, there have been evidences of those who committed forced labour have been taken action under Article 25 of the ILO Convention 29. There is no provision in Convention 29, which says the false complainant must not be taken action. Yet, ILO is demanding no action against such false complainants, which is beyond our national law.

Not wishing to yield the international impression that it is reluctant to cooperate with ILO, Myanmar has fulfilled the demand of ILO. With this in mind , Myanmar has relaxed existing national laws: for the false complaint, no action would be taken against the person lodging a false complainant for the first time and will be informed of his wrong action; if the same person files a false complaint for the second time, he will be given warning , and if the same person files a false complaint for the third time, he will have to be taken action against according to the existing laws. Notwithstanding this very relaxed proposal, ILO has rejected it all in total.

Moreover , there are demands from ILO such as having discussion for establishment of a mechanism to accept complaints on forced labour before October 2006 and approval to be accorded by the highest authorities concerned of both parties, to release Aye Myint, the case relating to the complaint on forced labour at Nga Pyin village of Aung Lan township should be further proceeded for completion etc.

In this connection, when the process of complaints are studied , it is found that the majority of complaints are from Taungup, Aunglan and Bago areas and that people like Aung Than Tun are behind the scene. The death of Ko Win Lwin from Nga Pyin village in Aunglan Township was a good example. In this case, it can be verified in documental evidences shown on the board that Aung Than Tun, Thein Zan, an ex-lawyer, and Zaw Htay, had filed the false complaint.

Present Relationship between ILO and Myanmar

Concerning the establishment of the mechanism requested by ILO, meetings have already been conducted four times in Yangon and five times in Geneva. Moreover, during October, an ILO mission had visited Myanmar for discussion. However, negotiations are required to continue to set up a mechanism as there are three remaining differences between ILO and Myanmar.

Now, I would like to present three points of disagreement.

The First Point: Their request is that the ILO Liaison Officer wants to examine the complaint of forced labour and confidentially meet the complainants, their representative and witnesses by himself alone. As this demand is similar to semi-investigation, it seems to be beyond the existing laws of our country. According to Section 202 (1) of 1898 Code of Criminal Procedure, this kind of, authority is vested only in a Magistrate or a police officer assigned by the Magistrate. Although Myanmar side made negotiation for going together with a person assigned by the Working Committee, the Liaison Officer requested to go alone and examine and the person assigned by the Working Committee only  will have to accompany him in particular for security reason beyond the frame of Myanmar laws.
 
The Second Point: Their request is to extend the capacity of ILO liaison officer to appoint an additional international staff. Myanmar side proposed that there are evidences that in present situation, the Liaison Officer can handle with the complaints of forced labour himself alone. In future, in response to the workload of Liaison Officer which he may have adjustments of his facilities may be accorded due discussions of both parties. We do not seriously deny the request, but we will consider it in future as in present situation it will not be necessary to extend the capacity.
 
The Third Point: ILO requests a trial period not less than 18 months. Myanmar side has proposed a trial period of twelve months, but ILO did not accept it yet.
 
Demands of the ILO over the disagreement
 
ILO says, these requests are their minimum positions and it remains unchanged. The 297th Session of ILO Governing Body held in November 2006 made a resolution that the intensive discussions should be made between Myanmar and ILO concluding implementation of Convention No 29. Such a discussion should be based upon the final compromised text proposed by ILO. If Myanmar had not been able to set up a mechanism to deal with the complaints of forced labour until the next March GB Session 2007, a specific item would be placed in the agenda of its Session, to enable it to move on legal options, including, as appropriate, involving the International Court of Justice.
 
It was found that there is submission of the matter to ICJ for advisory opinion in the concluding remarks. Indeed, only if there is dispute or question of provisions under article 37 (1) of the Constitution of ILO, it can be referred to ICJ.
 
Let me present the original clause:
 
“Any question or dispute relating to the interpretation of this Constitution or of any subsequent Convention concluded by the members in pursuance of the provisions of this Constitution shall be referred for decision to the International Court of Justice.”
 
Concerning the term of the false complainant, whatever prescribed in the internal law, ILO requested not to take action against the false complainant. Such a request is not contained in provisions under the Convention No 29 and so we do not question over the  dispute in the interpretation of the provisions under the convention No 29.
 
      Concerning Myanmar case, the representative of People's Republic of China expressed his opinion at the 297th GB Session of ILO as follows:
 
      - It should be discussed within the framework of ILO in cooperation and negotiation and it should not need to discuss and transfer to other UN Organizations.
 
      - In order to take actions upon one country, we disagree to take sanction.
 
      - It is found that the forced labour problem is related to the economic development, and if it is really willing to eradicate forced labour in that country, the international community should consider taking this fact into account and give assistance to that country.
 
Similarly, there are other countries that expressed constructive opinions on Myanmar. We think that it will be more practical if ILO takes their constructive advice into consideration.
 
Conclusion
 
I would like to conclude that since the beginning of her independence, Myanmar became a member of ILO at an early stage and cooperated with ILO heartily. As in the past, Myanmar will cooperate with ILO in the future. But we will steadfastly carry out only the tasks which will be beneficial to the country and the people. At the time of Tatmadaw Government, all the Conventions are being observed at its best and the actions have been taken effectively against offences which have happened in some sectors at lower level. I would like to express that compared with the successive periods after gaining independence, the level of observance of the application of Convention 29 reaches the highest at the time of the Government o the State Peace and Development Council.