The present globalisation process does not hold any promising aspect for employment situation as the employment only rose by 22.8 percent against 55 percent global output and 24 percent increase in labour force between 1991 and 2004.
'In consequence, unemployment increased by record 45 percent and the long-running trend towards increased informal economy employment continued," Donglin Li, Country Director International Labour Organisation (ILO) Islamabad stated here on Saturday.
He was speaking at inaugural session of a seminar on "Human Resource Management for Strengthening Corporate Competitiveness" organised jointly by Employers' Federation of Pakistan and Nippon-Keidanren International Co-operation Centre (NICC) Tokyo.
Donglin Li said that the reality is that increased trade and direct foreign investment was not generating the employment-intensive growth and not investing sufficiently in human resource development, education and skills training.
'The ILO believes that women and men need broad-based skills that can be adapted to rapidly changing economic requirements. Sound education and training policy could provide an important instrument to offset the negative impacts of globalisation, while at the same time, equipping people with the knowledge and skills to take advantage of the emerging opportunities," he maintained.
In this connection, the ILO director opined employers have a critical role to play in investment in training, while this role was especially appropriate with respect to investment in workplace-based and continuous education and training, which could grace workers employability and the competitiveness of the enterprises.
Donglin Li informed that Decent Work Country Programme for Pakistan was being finalised and would be implemented by the ILO in close consultation with the government, employers and workers organisations.
He said that human resource development and education & training were critical to the ILO goal of obtaining decent work for women and men in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity.
The ILO recommendation on HRD No 195, he said, was adopted by the International Labour Conference in June 2004, which provides, for the first time, definitions of contemporary training issues, including lifelong training, competencies and employability.
"Quality education, pre-employment training and learning throughout life are the three pillars for building and maintaining individuals' employability," the ILO director added.
Earlier, President EFP Ashraf W. Tabani said issues concerning the new human resources strategy were numerous and must be addressed by management and labour.
"It starts from improving the system for labour laws, promoting diversity management, adopting a mix of diverse employment patterns and establishing multi-track wage system. Labour and management in each enterprise should create the most appropriate human resources strategy for their own company, based on the business environment and workplace conditions they face," he emphasised
Dr Mirza Abrar Baig, Group Chief HRM & Administration National Bank of Pakistan, said most of the organisations in Pakistan did not have any HR policy and if they do, they do not inform their employees about it, which was a 'dilemma' here.
"The HR department should identify right kind of people for the most appropriate job, and for this, qualities of employees must match with the requirement of work or responsibilities", Tabani added.
Fasihul Karim Siddiqi said most of HR managers in Pakistan were still engrossed in traditional functions of a typical personnel department, while only some of them had turned professionals by acquiring latest expertise in HR applications with the help of information technology.
Motoi Mizuno, adviser NICC, on the occasion gave a detailed presentation about the HR management.
Later, speaking at the concluding session Consul General of Japan in Karachi Shoichi Nakano hailed the holding of the seminar and hoped that this would further strengthen the brotherly relations between the two countries.
He said Japan valued its friendship with Pakistan and wanted further cementing of bilateral ties.
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