On July 18, representatives of the Business and Industry Advisory Committee (BIAC) to the OECD and the International Organization of Employers (IOE) met with G20 labor ministers in Moscow, emphasizing the need for open and competitive markets to stimulate growth and job creation through policies that enable private enterprise.
In a joint statement, BIAC and IOE focused on the importance of a qualified and mobile workforce, good governance, and reliable policies for companies to invest and generate employment.
USCIB Senior Counsel Ronnie Goldberg, who is an IOE regional vice president and chairs BIAC’s labor and employment committee, joined the business delegation, which was led by B20 Chair Alexander Shokhin, president of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.
The business statement urged governments to commit to policies conducive to private sector-led growth and job creation, improve policy consistency between governments and increase business confidence to invest. It also said that properly implementing comprehensive and ambitious national structural reforms would promote job creation and economic development. The business groups also voiced support for implementing non-distortive taxation at levels that encourage enterprise and investment, reducing high non-wage labor costs and investing in human capital to enable labor market flexibility, and promoting innovation and entrepreneurship, especially youth entrepreneurship.
Looking at specific measures to spur employment, especially youth employment, BIAC and IOE stressed the importance of enhancing employability through quality education, training, workplace learning and incentives for all to work. Business also supports the IOE/BIAC Global Apprenticeships Alliance, a global company network aimed at broadening the scope and number of apprenticeships in order to address youth employability, as well as joint initiatives with labor to cultivate youth employment.
Opening the gathering, Maxim Topilin, Russia’s minister of labor and social protection, expressed appreciation for the participation of the social partners in the G20. “These consultations are very useful and allow us to see a different perspective on the issues that we address,” he said. “The social partners’ ideas and recommendations based on their expertise facilitate the G20 decision-making process with respect to such key issues as employment, labor relations development and social protection.”
