On February 4, this year, the Ministry of employment and labor relations held a meeting with a delegation of the International labor organization headed by the regional director of the ILO Regional office for Europe and Central Asia, Heinz Koller.

Welcoming the guests, the Minister of employment and labor relations N. KHusanov expressed special gratitude to the guests for their visit to the Republic of Uzbekistan and noted that the ILO makes a huge contribution to the effective promotion of national programs in the field of labor relations, improving procedures and strengthening institutions of the national tripartite social dialogue.

In turn, the ILO Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia, H. Koller, highly appreciated Uzbekistan's achievements in the socio-economic sphere and in the field of cooperation with the ILO. In particular, he stressed the importance of creating the State labor Inspectorate, the National Commission on combating human trafficking and forced labor, as well as the Republican tripartite Commission on social and labor issues.

At the same time, the parties noted that cooperation between Uzbekistan and the ILO has reached a new historical start in development, when interaction has moved from issues of eliminating forced labor to such strategic areas as developing a national employment strategy, moving to formal employment, conducting a comprehensive analysis of the situation of women and youth in the labor market, taking the first steps to institutionalized tripartite social dialogue and strengthening public employment services.

During the negotiations, the parties separately discussed the development of a National employment strategy. Its key aspects were defined as:

- increasing the level of competence of labor authorities, improving the employment services provided, continuing the practice of improving the activities of the Central Bank;

- activation of employment programs, especially for women and youth, vulnerable segments of the population;

- reducing the informal sector;

- human capital. Improving the level of professional skills, reducing the gap between supply and demand in the labor market;

- formalization of labor relations of the self-employed, expansion of entrepreneurship programs.

Given that the country programme on decent work is coming to an end this year, the parties have reached a mutual agreement on the need to develop a New country programme. The Ministry of employment and labor relations proposed to define priority areas of the Program as creating decent and high-quality jobs for inclusive growth, improving employment policies, including employment of youth and women, and improving the quality of the labor force.

In conclusion, the parties stressed their commitment to further deepen cooperation, which will always focus on the individual and their interests.