Myanmar delegation participates in Global Labour Market Conference 2026

A Myanmar delegation led by Un­ion Minister for Labour U Aung Kyaw Hoe attended the Global Labour Market Conference 2026, held on 26-27 January in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and arrived back in Yangon on 28 January.

The conference was con­vened with the aim of addressing challenges currently faced by labour markets worldwide and creating better employment op­portunities for the future.

The first section of the conference took place at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Riyadh on 26 January, and Mr Ahmed bin Sulaiman Al-Rajhi, Minister of Human Resources and Social Development of Saudi Arabia, delivered an opening speech.

During the Ministerial Roundtable themed “From Policy to Practice: Opening Immediate Pathways to Work Amid Rapid Change”, the Union minister stated that the Global Labour Market Conference was first initiated in 2023 to prepare young people for technology, and that at the 2025 conference, eight effective action plans were suc­cessfully adopted. For developing countries, the challenge is no longer limited to future planning alone, but now requires the im­plementation of practical meas­ures to respond effectively to rap­id automation, climate change, and economic pressures.

He continued that Myanmar is prioritizing the four key ar­eas to change the policies into practice.

The first one is that efforts are being made to transform businesses from the informal sector into the formal sector in order to ensure that employment opportunities are accessible and inclusive for all.

The second is to provide workers with appropriate skills. The government is collaborating with the private sector through the National Skills Standards Authority (NSSA) to develop oc­cupational skills standards and to implement the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) system, which assesses skills and issues recognized certification.

The third one is that poli­cies are being adjusted to main­tain balance in order to nurture adaptable and resilient labour markets, and the fourth is to ef­fectively utilize technology and data, strengthening bilateral and multilateral cooperation frame­works to connect cross-border labour demand and supply.

In doing so, digital literacy should be prioritized and efforts should be made to transform the brain drain into a brain gain sit­uation by creating the chance for migrant workers returning from foreign countries to be able to share and apply their experi­ences and technologies for the development of the country.

Afterwards, the labour min­isters from 40 countries coordi­nated the discussion.

At noon, the Union minister attended the opening ceremony of the conference held at the King Abdulaziz International Confer­ence Centre. In the evening, the Union minister attended the cul­tural show and dinner event.

On 27 January, the Union minister met Mr Abdulwahab Alageel, General Supervisory Executive for the Domestic Ser­vices Sector of Saudi Arabia, to discuss labour-related matters between the two countries.

He also attended the La­bour Award Ceremony, which honoured outstanding individ­uals and organizations in areas such as workplace environment improvement, occupational safe­ty and health, skills and train­ing development, promotion of national workforce utilization, and high-level management ex­cellence within Saudi Arabia’s labour market.

The conference was attend­ed by 40 ministers of labour, alongside leaders from ILO, World Bank, international organ­izations, academia, the private sector, and civil society. — MNA/ KTZH