ALMM is conducted as an attempt to support the recovery and resilience of all workers affected by the pandemic and the digital disruption.

In a hybrid meeting taking place on Oct. 28 in Jakarta, Ida immediately led the 26th ALMM after completing the handover of chairmanship from Malaysian Human Resources Minister represented by his Deputy Minister Tuan Haji Awang Bin Hashim, who chaired the meeting for the 2018-2020 period.

"This year, it’s Indonesia’s turn to lead the ASEAN cooperation on labor for the 2020-2022 period,” Ida said.

As the leader of the ASEAN cooperation on labor for the 2020-2022, she added, Indonesia seeks to promotes ASEAN workers for competitiveness, resilience, and agility on the future of work.

Ida highlighted that Indonesia will focus on improving and accelerating the vocational skills of its workers, especially in developing technology proficiency.

"In that way, workers can meet the needs of digital disruption in order to take jobs available in the digital economy era and survive the crisis from the COVID-19 pandemic,” she explained.

The biennial gathering brings labor ministers of ten ASEAN countries to discuss current and emerging challenges that have impact on labor cooperation in the region, and the ASEAN Labor Ministers Meeting Plus Three Countries: Japan, Korea, and China, also known as ALMM+3, will bring the ten ASEAN labor ministers along with heads of delegations from the three close allies.

"The ALMM is a forum to exchange information and share our experiences in facing the digital workforce transformation and what type of vocational education needed to address the shift,” Ida said.

Among the pressing issues and challenges in the digital age discussed in the meeting were employment relationships, types of employment contract, social dialogue, occupational health and social security, and the low entrepreneurship rates among ASEAN nations.

"We hope the ASEAN cooperation on labor can encourage growth and new initiatives in the industry sector, such as in the industrial relations, skills development, occupational health and safety, and labor inspection,” Ida said.

In the 26th ALMM, Indonesia proposed three cooperation initiatives in the field of regional workforce.

The first initiative is a measure to adopt the ASEAN Declaration on improving the competitiveness, resilience, and agility of the region’s workers to help them thrive in the new economy.

The second one aims to promote cooperation among ASEAN nations, ASEAN's dialogue partners, regional social partners, and international organizations to achieve the goals set in the Declaration.

"The third seeks to make meaningful progress and milestones in creating competitive, resilient, and agile workers who are ready to face the future of work,” Ida added.

The ministry has launched the 3S Program, in which 3S stands for skilling, reskilling, and upskilling, as part of its effort to fill the digital skills gap. The program, which involves industrial entities and other relevant stakeholders, aims to provide training and education through training centers (BLK).

Starting from Oct. 28, Ida would lead the ASEAN cooperation on labor until 2022 to improve the competitiveness of the workforce in ASEAN, said secretary-general of the Manpower Ministry Anwar Sanusi, who is also the chair of the Senior Labor Officials Meeting.

There are three keywords to improve the skills of the ASEAN labor force. “They are competitiveness, persistence, and agility, all of which allow workers to be agile enough to master jobs in the future,” said Anwar.

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