The Hon. Shane Gibson, Minister of Labour and National Insurance and the Public Service (right) welcomed Guy Ryder, Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO) upon his arrival Sunday March 1, 2015 at the VIP Lounge of the Lynden Pindling International Airport. The Bahamas is hosting the 9th ILO Meeting of the Caribbean Ministers of Labour, March 3-4, 2015. (BIS Photo/Patrick Hanna)

NASSAU, The Bahamas – The Hon. Shane Gibson, Minister of Labour and National Insurance and the Public Service welcomed Guy Ryder, Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO) to a conference focusing on labour issues, youth employment and related matters.

The Ninth ILO Meeting of the Caribbean Ministers of Labour will be held March 3-4, 2015 at the British Colonial Hilton.

Mr. Ryder paid a Courtesy Call on Mr. Gibson at the Ministry of Labour on Monday, March 2. The dialogue focused on issues up for discussion during the two-day conclave, which would be officially opened by the Rt. Hon. Perry Christie, Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.

Mr. Gibson said it was a pleasure welcoming Mr. Ryder to The Bahamas, the first time an ILO Director General has visited the country for a conference.

“The Government of The Bahamas is extremely pleased to host this very important meeting of the ILO Ministers of Labour under the theme: ‘Decent Work for Sustainable Development.’” Mr. Gibson said.

“With a renewed focus on the Decent Work, CARICOM Colleagues will discuss a number of critical issues including: creating job opportunities,developing skills for youth employment and climate change.”

The representatives of 13 CARICOM member-states and 9 territories, will meet in sessions to also hear the perspectives of public and private investor representatives from the Governments of Canada, China, the Association of Caribbean States and the CEO of the Republic Bank of Trinidad and Tobago.

The Meeting will bring together Ministers with responsibility for
Labour, Permanent Secretaries and high-level officials of the English-
and Dutch-speaking Caribbean, as well as representatives of the
Caribbean Congress of Labour (CCL), and the Caribbean Employers'
Confederation (CEC).

Guy Ryder, Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO) paid a Courtesy Call on the Hon. Shane Gibson, Minister of Labour and National Insurance and the Public Service on Monday, March 2, 2015 at the Ministry of Labour. Pictured from left are Christian Ramos Veloz, Senior Advisor, Office of the ILO; Chanelle Brown, Senior Assistant Secretary, Minister of Labour and National Insurance; Robert Farquharson, Director of Labour, Bahamas; Guy Ryder, Director General International Labour Organization; the Hon. Shane Gibson, Minister of Labour and National Insurance and Minister of the Public Service and Giovanni di Cola, Director, ILO Decent Work Team and Officer for the Caribbean. (BIS Photo/Raymond Bethel)

Labour Ministers will discuss the CARICOM and ILO
partnership and the implementation of decent work in national and
regional policy agenda, as well as the regional tripartite social
dialogue mechanism.

The Meeting follows the call by Caribbean delegates at the ILO's 18th
American Regional Meeting in Lima, Peru, held October 13-16, 2014, for
policies that would mitigate the impact of climate change on the
economies of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the region.

A session entitled "Creating Job Opportunities and Developing Skills for
Youth Employment and Productivity in the Caribbean" will explore the
issue of youth unemployment in the Caribbean region, with actors of the
real economy, international and regional partners such as Republic Bank,
Colleges and Institutes Canada, and the Association of Caribbean States
(ACS).

The first ILO Caribbean Labour Ministers' Meeting was also held in Trinidad and Tobago in 1996. Subsequent meetings have been held in Guyana (1998), Jamaica (2000), Barbados (2002), The Bahamas (2004), Trinidad and Tobago (2007), and Guyana (2010).

This 2015 ILO meeting comes on the heels of the Twenty-Sixth Intersessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community, February 26-27, 2015 in Nassau.