The 48th Annual Meeting Occupational Safety and Heath Information Centres in Beijing

Attending the Meeting were members of 19 representatives from CIS Centres and some senior officials of the ILO Geneva.

Officials of National Institute of Labour Protection (under Vietnam General Confederation of Labour) leaded by Dr. Le Van Trinh, Presidium member, Director of Institute of Labour Protection, together with the relevant ministries of Vietnam, also attended.

The main content of the 48th Annual Meeting was adopting Meeting Report in 2009 and representatives of the CIS in Geneva presented the report about changes in the Database and electronic information webpage of the CIS; activities and results of the CIS headquarter in Geneva; synthesis report on the activities of the member centres, emphasizing the nearest results and future plans.

During the Meeting, the 5th China International Forum on Work Safety and the International OSH Exhibition were also co-organized by the ILO and the State Administration of Work Safety in Beijing, China.

The main contents discussed in the China International Forum on Work Safety include:

– Development and Practices in OSH;

– Process safety management of hazardous chemicals;

– Risk Assessment, Hazards identification and Treatment in the mining companies;

– Coal mine disaster prevention and Occupational disease treatment;

– Prevention of collapse accidents in Construction Industry;

– Corporate Responsibilities in work safety and personnel training;

– Mines Safety: Strategy, Risk management and Innovative personal protection equipment.

Proff. Dr. Le Van Trinh on behalf of VGCL had a presentation namely “Research and apply scientific OSH solutions for employees’ protection and health care in Vietnam” at the Technical Committees No. 1. The content of presentation has attracted the attention of participants attended the forum because it proposed the simple, efficient solutions, and consistent with technico – economic conditions of the countries having similar qualification such as Vietnam.

Especially, the Vietnam delegation had visited and worked with the China Academy of Safety Science and Technology, a national research institute in the field of OSH (formerly Institute of Labour Protection established in 1980, then in 1998 was renamed the China Academy of Safety Science and Technology).

Here, the participants had visited the laboratory, exchanged experiences with other researchers. The China Academy of Safety Science and Technology has functions and duties similar to Vietnam Institute of Labour Protection, but focused more on the field of safety.

Generally, attending the annual meeting between the CIS centres is a good opportunity for Vietnam delegation to represent the voice of the Vietnam Trade Union in workers’ health care and protection and exchange experiences with experts on OSH, especially in the areas very interested in Vietnam as safe mining, construction, chemicals manufacture, etc.

Hopefully, in the following years the National Institute of Labour Protection will have many opportunities to learn, exchange experiences, develop collaboration with domestic and foreign organisations on OSH for the cause of care and protection of workers.

(Source: ThS. N.T.Huong)