PR-2145
September 10, 2021
The United States, Taiwan, Japan, and Slovakia Cohost Virtual Global Cooperation and Training Framework (vGCTF) Workshop
on The Future of Work in a Post-Covid-19 Economic Recovery
On September 9-10, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), the Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), the Taiwan Ministry of Labor (MOL), the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association (JTEA), and Slovak Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei co-hosted a virtual GCTF workshop entitled “The Future of Work in a Post-Covid-19 Economic Recovery.”
Since the GCTF’s 2015 program launch, this is the first GCTF event to focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and labor policy and the first time the U.S. Department of Labor and Taiwan’s Ministry of Labor participated in a GCTF workshop. The workshop provided labor regulators and policy professionals a platform to discuss the impact of artificial intelligence on the post pandemic labor market, to analyze how these technologies affect occupational safety and health, and to network with other experts.
The U.S. Deputy Undersecretary of Labor Thea Lee joined MOFA Minister Joseph Wu, MOL Minister Hsu, JTEA Chief Representative Hiroyasu Izumi, and Slovak Economic and Cultural Office Representative Martin Podstavek in delivering opening remarks.
In her closing remarks, AIT Director Sandra Oudkirk highlighted, “As regulators and governments consider policies to address new challenges, we believe in a transparent, consensus-based, and private sector-led approach to developing standards for emerging technologies like artificial intelligence. That’s how we will arrive at standards that are technologically sound, engender the public’s trust, and reflect our values. We will work with partners like Taiwan and Japan on developing standards and norms to ensure that technologies are deployed in an ethical way that respects human rights.”
AIT, Taiwan’s MOFA and the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association jointly administer the GCTF, which serves as a platform for Taiwan to share its expertise with partners around the world.