ILO/China South-South cooperation project to expand employment services and enhance labour market information in Cambodia and Lao People’s Democratic Republic

An ILO/China South-South project has led to an improvement in the sharing of labour market data and closer cooperation between the Cambodian government, workers’ and employers’ organizations.

The Project was designed to improve labour market efficiency and participation, reduce unemployment, and enhance linkages and information flows between job seekers and employers, which in turn contributed to the reduction of poverty in Cambodia and Lao People’s Democratic Republic.

The Project strategy builds on the core role of employment services as defined under the ILO Convention No. 88. Regardless of the economic situation, globalization and technological progress rapidly change the skills needs of enterprises, and thus put pressure on enterprises to find qualified workers and the workforce to find jobs. Improving the quality of employment services through strengthened client orientation and capacity building of job centres and their officials, and improving the quality and analysis of labour market information were the core components of this Project. Appropriate methodologies and tools for capacity building were developed with tripartite partners.

The Project was implemented under the ILO South-South Cooperation Framework with which the People’s Republic of China’s support combined the provisions of financial resources and a wide range of knowledge exchange initiatives based on experiences at both national and provincial levels. Core to this cooperation was the technical assistance, advisory services and sharing of good practices. Together with the ILO’s expertise and drawing upon a large inventory of practical case studies from Asia and other regions, the Project aimed to contribute to a more developed labour market and human resources to achieve the economic and social growth and advance with the current work envisaged under the 2015 ASEAN Regional Economic Integration agenda.