APO conducted a fact-finding survey on the labor market and women's employment during 1998 and 1999 in eight member countries. A follow-up symposium was organized in 1999 in Hanoi, Vietnam in cooperation with Friederich Ebert Sriftung where the results of the survey were discussed. The survey and the symposium have identified key issue which have an important bearing on the promotion of women's employement. They include, to mention a few, gender neutality of macro policies that should be reconsidered, need to monitor and evaluate the impact of legislation on working women, the lack of gender-related statistics, and emergence of network marketing for women. (text cited from Foreword)