Singapore Launches ASEAN Labour Statisticians Network to Spot Emerging Jobs and Skills Earlier
Singapore's Ministry of Manpower (MOM) announced in Singapore on October 27 the launch of the ASEAN Labour Statisticians Network (ALSN), proposed by Singapore to identify emerging jobs and skills earlier and strengthen workforce planning across member states. The inaugural ALSN Expert Forum is being held at Sheraton Towers Singapore from October 27 to 29, 2026.
MOM said the ALSN will run from 2026 to 2030 with Singapore as convenor. An ASEAN Labour Statistics Office has also been launched, chaired by Ang Boon Heng with Fang Shun Wu as Head of Office and Executive Secretary, alongside an ALSN Knowledge Portal. The forum saw the first public presentation of two regional products: the ASEAN Green Jobs Report, covering all 11 ASEAN member states and feeding into the ASEAN Framework and Action Plan for a Just and Inclusive Transition to Green Jobs 2025-2030; and the ALSN Co-Creation Incubator Projects, which include a New and Emerging Occupations Model covering roles such as AI Governance Analysts and Agentic AI Engineers, an AI Exposure Index, job-description standardisation tools and simulated respondents.
MOM Permanent Secretary Stanley Loh told the forum that ASEAN economies face labour-market change driven by technologies such as super intelligence (SI), and that regional statistical cooperation helps countries spot new occupations and skills sooner. He also noted Singapore's ASEAN Chairmanship in 2027.
Participants included ASEAN Deputy Secretary-General San Lwin, International Labour Organization Chief Statistician Ritash Sarna and OECD Chief Statistician Dr Steve MacFeely. MOM said the ALSN will sustain cooperation among ASEAN labour statistics agencies through expert forums, joint research and shared data tools.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 新加坡滨海湾。Dietmar Rabich 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Marina Bay, Singapore. Photo by Dietmar Rabich, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
