OREANDA-NEWS. September 03, 2012.   Vladimir Putin met with members of the International Confederation of Free Trade Union’s Asia-Pacific Trade Union Network in the run-up to the APEC summit in Vladivostok.

Economic integration and protecting people’s labour and social rights were the subjects of discussion.

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PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. It is a great pleasure to meet with trade union leaders in the run-up to the APEC summit in Vladivostok.

We have been a long time preparing for this event, the main theme of which, as you know, is liberalising free trade. This is a traditional theme for the Asia-Pacific economies and the APEC forum and it is a very important and relevant issue in the world today given the complex processes underway in the global economy.

But at the same time, the Asia-Pacific region, the part of the world that will be represented at the summit in Vladivostok, in Russia’s Far East, is the global economy’s big hope, as you know well. After all, this is the only part of the world where we can still see some rapid economic growth. In 2011, average global GDP growth was 3.9 percent, but the average was 4.1 percent in the Asia-Pacific region. This includes the relatively modest results posted by the US and Japanese economies, but overall, the Asian region leaders have been showing good results. We know, however, that even in these countries there are also some trends that oblige us to keep a close eye on the whole situation.

The trade unions and their leaders focus above all on social issues, employment, and labour market development of course. I had the pleasure of speaking recently in Geneva at a big trade union event organised by the International Labour Organisation, and this gave me the chance to immerse myself in what your colleagues are doing and learn about the issues uppermost on their minds. It is only natural that trade union leaders concentrate above all on labour market and workers’ issues, but taking part in that event made me realise just how lively and professional these discussions are, and, without exaggerating at all, how close to heart the trade union leaders take the issues facing workers.

This all goes to show that today’s meeting, as I see it, is very useful and needed, as it gives me and the person who will head Russia’s delegation – and Russia is the summit’s host country – the chance to take into account your views on what is going on in the world and hear your advice and recommendations. I hope we will talk about these things in more depth today.

I want to say at the outset that the Russian Federation and its government have done a lot lately to support workers, and will continue these efforts.

We worked very hard during the serious crisis that hit the global economy in 2009-2010. Our unemployment level jumped up sharply then, but the measures we took brought it back down to the pre-crisis level and indeed, we have done even better and now have an unemployment level lower than the 2008-2009 pre-crisis level.

Our average national unemployment level is now 5.1-5.2 percent. This is a decent result. Our goal now is not just to keep reducing this level, but to reformat our labour market. We have set ourselves the ambitious target of creating 25 million new jobs. Some of these jobs will be created from scratch, while others will be created by reformatting existing jobs. The primary objective is to get people doing more skilled and better paid work. 

Colleagues, I note in this respect that so far, we have been successful in reaching a consensus between the executive authorities and the trade unions, and I thank the leaders of Russia’s independent trade unions for this. I think this is very important not just here, but in any country, especially at a time of economic crisis. We always should look for and ensure the balance between rising labour costs, social guarantees, and economic development opportunities because we all know that only through robust economic development can we ultimately achieve our common aims, namely, the goal of raising our peoples’ living standards and wellbeing.

This is what I wanted to say for a start. I am sure that we will have a substantial and interesting discussion. I thank you for finding the time for today’s meeting. Thank you very much for your attention.