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Closing Speech by Deputy Minister of Human Resources

SAFETY AND HEALTH OFFICER PROGRAM FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES (ISHO)

 

23^rd June 2009, 9.00 a.m

 

Yang berbahagia Dato’ Ir. Dr. Johari Basri

Director General, Department of Occupational Safety and Health

 

Yang Berusaha Encik Norman Ahmad

Repsentive , International Cooperation Section, Economic Planning Unit

 

Selva

CEO PERKESO

 

Friends from ASEAN countries,

Distinguished Delegates

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to congratulate the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH), the International Cooperation Section of the Economic Planning Unit in the Prime Minister’s Department, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the Social Security Organization (PERKESO) for their collaborative efforts in making this pioneer program a reality.

On behalf of the Ministry of Human Resources and the Government of Malaysia, I hope that the ISHO participants had enjoyed their stay in Malaysia and we extend our gratitude for their participation. Their knowledge and experience would certainly be a valuable input to our deliberations.

Our labour environment and employment trend is forever changing due to domestic and also global influence. Creating, establishing and maintaining job opportunities in conducive investment climate is important in ensuring healthy working environment and thus benefits the manpower.

Last year in his speech, the former Prime Minister, YAB Dato’ Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said throughtout the course of our history, Malaysia has persevered, often against very difficult odds. From our humble beginnings, we have grown from from strength to strength, to become a flourishing and prosperous country.

However we still have a long journey ahead of us but that is a journey that will not be ours to take. Therefore, in planning of national development and achieving the target of vision 2020 of this country, there are still challenges and hurdles to be overcome. As we take stock of the fruits of decent work, the plight in making the workplace to achieve zero accident goals should be taken in serious consideration.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Our safety and health system is based on the principle of assessing the risks and managing them sensibly, not trying to eliminate them completely. We encourage employers to focus their energy and resources more on the significant hazards that can cause real harm and less on the trivial.

Different industries need different approaches – it is no good thinking that the needs of the growing number of small and medium industries across the nation can be met in the same way as the larger corporations. The Occupational Safety and Health Act or OSHA 1994 offer a solution both in promoting safety and health messages and matters relating to signage, worker protective equipment, manual handling, and first aid.

Let’s have no doubt that good safety and health should be part of the business culture. Good occupational safety and health should not be seen as a burden but as a business enabler and productivity driver. In 1994, when the OSHA was launched, PERKESO recorded some 109,447 industrial accident cases across the country.

By 2008 the number had already fallen to 54,605 cases. This was a welcome trend but workplace accidents need to be lowered further still and we certainly need to do far more to tackle work-related ill health.

We should never forget that every statistics means real pain and suffering to the individual concerned and also to his or her family and friends. But we know that we will never be totally successful in preventing workplace accidents. Therefore, we need to also help those who develop these conditions to recover and then return to work.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Decent work calls for the integration of economic and social objectives and for a well-orchestrated combination of measures converging towards four strategic objectives, namely rights of work, employment, social protection and social dialogue.

However, the belief that injury and disease ‘go with the job’ should not be accepted. As practitioners in the field of occupational safety and health or OSH, you are the leaders in protecting people in the workplace and safeguarding the environment. Therefore our activities must also show that OSH can add value to the productivity and profitability of the businesses.

OSHA 1994 firmly established that notion of responsible self-management by business and extended duties to others that can influence safety and health performance, such as Directors and CEOs.

Since then, there has been some success in transferring ownership of the problem and the solutions from the regulator to those responsible for creating and managing the risk and this is a direction that we must continue to move in.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of the Ministry of Human Resources and the Government, I sincerely hope that all of you have also spent this valuable time and opportunity to explore the fascinating sights in Kuala Lumpur.

I am confident that with the participation of our foreign friends who came all the way to share their experience with us, this program had foster closer cooperation between all participating countries to improve the occupational safety and health standard in the region. This program is a beginning towards closer ties between Malaysia and all the participating countries. It is in line with the objective of ASEAN- OSHNET – to facilitate and promote the exchange of the relevant OSH in information and the sharing of training expertise.

The Ministry of Human Resources through the Department of Occupational Safety and Health is offering all of you more technical assistance in the future. We are please to extend our assistance to any participating country in developing their OSH program based on the Malaysian model. Please do not hesitate to contact DOSH if you wish to apply the knowledge you have acquired for the past three weeks and require further clarification on Malaysia OSH.

With this note, I declare the ISHO program is officially close.

Thank you.