Abbas Ali Chohan
ISLAMABAD: Cognizant of the importance of remittances sent by overseas Pakistanis in building the country’s foreign exchange reserves, the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development (OPHRD) has sent more than 600,000 skilled and unskilled workforces to around 40 different countries during the current year to earn livelihood and support their families at home.
The Ministry took several initiatives, including imparting world-class professional training to potential candidates for overseas employment and signing Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) with employer countries to capture Pakistan’s due share in the international markets.
The efforts yielded the required results to a great extent despite the financial recession in world markets caused by the deadly coronavirus, the energy crisis, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
“The Overseas Employment Corporation (OEC) and Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment (BE&OE) had exported around 616,816 manpower abroad this year,” a senior official privy to overseas employment developments told APP.
The Overseas Employment Corporation (OEC) and BEOE, he said, were extensively working on the front line to promote and create various opportunities for youth to export skilled and unskilled labour abroad.
Overseas employment of Pakistanis
According to the National Database & Registration Authority (NADRA), around 10 million registered expatriate Pakistanis send over US$31 billion in remittances yearly, which is one of the primary sources for supporting the national economy.
The official said it was an admitted fact that the Pakistani diaspora’s role in their country’s prosperity and development was crucial. “Over 10,000 workers have been sent to South Korea, whereas export of more workers is in the pipeline.”
Explaining the government measures to expand overseas employment opportunities, he said Sajid Hussain Turi, the Federal Minister for Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development, has recently visited many countries to export Pakistani workforce and signed MOUs in this regard.
The minister visited Switzerland, Romania, Greece, and Portugal. He met the Director General of the International Labor Organization in Geneva and discussed with him the rehabilitation and relief of the workers affected by the recent floods in Pakistan.
Overseas employment opportunities
The minister viewed that Romania, Portugal, Italy, Greece, and other western countries needed large-scale human resources. Pakistan was ready to sign agreements to send a Pakistani workforce comprising professionals to these countries.
“Pakistan is interested in expanding its bilateral relations in the economic sector. The major reason for my visit is to create work opportunities for skilled and hardworking Pakistanis in Portugal,” Turi said while sharing his visit details. He elaborated that Portuguese companies can hire Pakistani IT experts and skilled workers, and the country is willing to assist Portugal by improving human resources in various fields.
Pakistan has proposed a draft of the Labor Mobility Partnership, which will be signed soon. The agreement on Labor Mobility Partnership will provide a legal framework for boosting cooperation between Pakistan and Portugal. The minister said that scholarships are being provided to overseas Pakistanis’ children, and special quotas will also be allocated for them in every university in the country.
Meanwhile, the Japanese global recruiting company is striving for the development of human resources in the IT sector of Pakistan, enabling youth to secure employment in the IT industry of Japan. During a bilateral visit to Greece, Minister Turi assured the Pakistani diaspora that the Ministry was making efforts to resolve their issues and grievances on a priority basis.
Overseas employment and economy
An overseas Pakistani in Greece, Syed Muhammad Jameel, said that immigrants were facing many problems in Greece compared to other European countries. “We are hopeful that the Ministry, after his visit, will play an important role in establishing cemented relations.”
An online complaint portal is being established for overseas Pakistanis, he added. Opportunities will be found in different countries to export OEC Pakistani workforce. He also suggested initiating training and foreign language classes for OEC workforce export.
The Overseas Ministry and the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Employment and Labour (MOEL) also signed an MOU on the sending and receiving workers in line with the Employment Permit System (EPS) in 2006.
The agreement is renewed after every two years. So far, the Overseas Employment Corporation (an attached department of the MOPHRD) has dispatched over 10,000 workers to the Republic of Korea under the EPS mechanism.
Turi said, “Pakistan and Korea relations have grown from strength to strength in all fields. The countries enjoy long-standing relations based on decades-old economic partnerships.”
At the request of the Federal Minister, the Ambassador of Korea also assured that Korea would consider the hiring of Pakistani Skilled Workforce and IT Professionals under a separate MoU or Agreement during the visit of their Minister for Labour and Employment to Pakistan next year.
Minister for OP&HRD also lauded the incumbent Korean Ambassador’s efforts to increase Pakistan’s quotation from 1100 to 2400, out of which 1600 workers have already travelled to Korea.
An official of the Ministry told the news agency that since 1971, Pakistan had sent over 13 million workers to foreign countries in different categories that had fetched valuable foreign exchange and supported the national economy.
Pakistan has been exporting skilled and unskilled labour to over 50 countries across the globe, but most workforce demands have been received from the middle-eastern countries.
Almost 2,480 valid license-holder Overseas Employment Promoters are affiliated with the Ministry and involved in exporting the workforce abroad. The incumbent regime, he said, is seeking more options abroad to export workers in technical fields to earn maximum remittances as Pakistan lagged in this stratum of specialized human resources exports.
Several technical training centres have been established across Pakistan to train workers before exporting the workforce abroad to avail themselves of better employment opportunities and wages, he added.
The government has decided to digitize the process of e-protector of immigrants’ clearance on an immediate basis which is aimed at making the processes easy, fair and transparent. The minister has hailed the best services of Salman Safi, who formulated this e-protector digital process after tedious hard work.
He said, “The government is committed and taking various steps to increase the number of labour exports abroad. All possible facilities are being provided to expatriates on a priority basis who are the precious asset of the country.”
