Ministry Of Labour And Social Affairs News

Sweden’s Minister for Trade, Ewa Björling and ministers of the Kurdistan Regional Government today inaugurated the Swedish Transport Academy in Erbil, northern Iraq. The training is targeted at young unemployed Iraqis with a secondary school background and offers occupational skills demanded in the transport sector. The establishment of the school is the result of close cooperation between Scania, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the United Nations, EF Education First and the Kurdish Regional Government’s Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.

The Ambassador of the Republic of Panama, HE Mr. Juan Alberto Castillero, on Feb. 6 deposited the instrument of ratification of the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 with the International Labour Organization (ILO). Panama, the largest flag State in the world, with nearly 25 per cent of the world’s merchant fleet flying its flag, is the fourth major shipping country in the world to ratify the Convention, adopted by the 94th International Labour Conference (Maritime) in Geneva in February 2006. Panama’s ratification is especially significant because, combined with the ratifications by Liberia, the Republic of Marshall Islands and the Bahamas (the next three largest States).