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1. The Committee notes the information supplied in the Government's detailed and informative report. It notes that the last population census (1980-90) indicated that the labour force participation rate was 57 per cent, employment in the formal sector was around 9.6 per cent of the total labour force, and unemployment stood at about 30 per cent. The population is very young and the most vulnerable groups are women, older workers, and the disabled.

2. The Committee notes the objectives set out in the employment policy, the Social and Economic Development Plan and the Medium Term Development Strategy (1997-2000). The Committee requests further information on the strategies adopted for involving the provincial governments in the Employment Policy, as it appeared to still be in progress at the time of reporting. It also would appreciate continuing to receive information on whether specific difficulties have been encountered by the projects developed to attain the objectives of full, productive and freely chosen employment and how far these difficulties have been overcome, as requested in the report form under Article 1 of the Convention.

3. The Committee notes with interest the Government's statement that the Statistical Unit of the Policy and Research Division is cooperating with the National Statistics Office. It looks forward to receiving in future reports the statistics and analysis to be used as a basis for deciding on measures for employment policy, as requested in the report form under Article 2.

4. The Government states that consultations occur at the national level through meetings and seminars at both the planning and implementation stages. The National Tripartite Consultative Council (NTCC) is composed of employers' and workers' representatives from all sectors of the economy, and government officials. The Committee notes this information and asks the Government to clarify how representatives of the informal sector workers are consulted, as requested in the report form under Article 3.

5. Lastly, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would indicate in its next report any follow-up taken relating to the reports prepared with ILO assistance concerning minimizing the social costs of structural adjustment, equality of women workers in the formal sector, and women in the informal sector. It would also be interested to know about follow-up taken with respect to the labour, employment and skills development policy agenda project sponsored by the Asian Development Bank.