Surin: Put spotlight on skills | Bangkok Post: business

The prospect of many migrant workers returning home to help Myanmar rebuild its economy should be a wake-up call for Thailand, underlining the need to shift from a labour-intensive system to one built on higher skills, says Asean secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan.

Mr Surin said on Friday that he was optimistic about "new real change" in Myanmar following a three-day visit to the country early this week with some officials from Asean and its dialogue partners."Both the president and [opposition leader] Aung San Suu Kyi were upbeat that within 10 years, Myanmar will be better off and perhaps be the most advanced and prosperous member of Asean," Mr Surin said at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand.The Asean chief said that both the government and opposition leaders wanted to welcome back migrant workers as several industrial zones and development projects are being planned.He also cautioned, however, that the country that was once the world's biggest rice exporter should not forget the agrarian roots that underpin its ecopnomy."I humbly remind them that that we (other Asean members) have never neglected the agricultural sector," he said."But [Myanmar leaders'] body language is very enthusiastic, as food processing and other labour-intensive industries could create lots of job opportunities. But Thailand will certainly face the problem of how to replace some two million workers [who will be returning home}."He said this development should remind Thai authorities of the importance of shifting from an unskilled labour-based economy to a knowledge-based or skilled-labour economy."Improving and facilitating the migration registration system or upgrading foreign labour management is certainly a must to help treat workers fairly, but we (Thailand) have to think of the medium- and long-term strategy as [Myanmar] moves forward in a labour-intensive [direction]," Mr Surin told the Bangkok Post.The Asean secretary-general told a media and diplomatic audience that President Thein Sein and his parliament, half of whose members are former uniformed officers, were confident about their future path."They want to go about the road map within their comfort level," he said. "They realise that...