Chairperson of the IPA CIS Council addressed the First St. Petersburg International Labour Forum

Chairperson of the IPA CIS Council, Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Valentina Matvienko opened the First St. Petersburg International Labour Forum. In her address she noted that people had come into an era when changes, including in such a key area as labor relations, became a constant part of the life of society.

The head of the IPA CIS Council stated that the development of technologies and production gave rise not only to new opportunities, but also to new challenges, in particular, leading to disappearance of many traditional professions and a release of significant free labor force.

“We can’t ignore emerging threats. The objective of public authorities is to give timely and appropriate responses to changes by making adjustments to education system, social security and labor laws”, said Valentina Matvienko.

Chairperson of the IPA CIS Council recalled that at the Global Summit of Women Speakers of Parliament in Abu Dhabi she had proposed to ask the International Labor Organization to prepare a comprehensive report on the perspective changes in the labor market ahead.

Valentina Matvienko expressed confidence that in the era of global changes it was very important to remember that well-being of people and raising living standards remained the key aim of social progress and governmental efforts. “Make no mistake, there is no country, no state, no international organization which can boast of having an effective approach for solving emerging problems. We can achieve success only by joining efforts of the entire international community. This forum is a step in this direction”, concluded Valentina Matvienko.

Deputy Secretaries General of the IPA CIS Council: Plenipotentiary Representative of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus Viktor Kogut and Plenipotentiary Representative of the Majlisi Oli of the Republic of Tajikistan Ibod Rakhimov also attended the event.

The First St. Petersburg International Labor Forum is a platform for discussing issues related to the development of human capital and the regulation of labor market, as well as the problems of labor mobility.

The relevance of the Forum is due to the need to address problems directly affecting economic stability and development: from shortages of labor force, efficiency of professional competitions, management of economic activity level to a maximum legalization of labor relations.

The Forum featured wide discussions of the concept of future work, approaches to effective state regulation of labor market and building and development of human capital globally. The participants also focused on migration issues and the globalization of labor market.

The Forum brought together more than 500 experts in the field of labor from around the world, including representatives of the CIS countries.