We are especially fortunate to have so many distinguished and well-informed speakers on the programme. Thanks to the constructive input that I know we can expect from our government, employer and worker panellists, the meeting should contribute to the formulation of significant policy guidelines. It was striking that not economic but social concerns dominated debate. And chief among these was human resource development.
Globalization is a fact of life.
But merely sharing a single marketplace does not mean that the values and principles which govern our economic life are also shared. I shall return to that compact, and the ILO's part in it, later. The Asian financial crisis has alerted us, all too starkly, to the harmful effects of volatile global markets. A crisis that seems to have begun with political turmoil in Indonesia and bad economic news in Japan went on to shatter regional economies in East and South-East Asia that had become dependent on that economy. The result was sharp downturns in GDP and massive increases in unemployment.