KARACHI: Malaysian team inspects local labour’s potential
KARACHI, Oct 21: Federal Minister for Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis, Abdul Sattar Laleka said on Tuesday that Pakistan was committed to export manpower in accordance with the host countries’ requirements.
He made the observation while visiting the Northern By-pass along with a Malaysian delegation, led by Minister for Human Resources Dr Fong Chan Onn.
The General Manager of the National Highway Authority (NHA) Mujeeb Qadir and Secretary for Labour and Manpower Khwaja Ijaz Sarwar were also present.
Mr Laleka said President Musharraf had issued directives to ensure that labour was selected on merit so that it could meet the host countries’ requirements.
He said the purpose of the visit to the by-pass project was to show the Malaysian delegation competence of Pakistani labour — both skilled and semi-skilled.
This is a very difficult project being handled in a very professional way, he remarked.
He was of the view that Pakistani labour had a great scope in Malaysia, especially in the road and building construction and oil plants.
There was a ban in place for 11 years on the export of skilled and semi-skilled labour to Malaysia, but the government has now lifted the ban, he said and pointed out that a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in this regard had been signed by the two countries in Islamabad.
He hoped that the export of the manpower would prove to be beneficial for the economies of both the countries and help strengthen the friendly relations further.
The minister said that manpower export this year had registered an 85 per cent increase at compared to the previous year. He said he would be visiting Malaysia after Ramazan to ascertain the requirement of Pakistani labour in factories there.
Pakistan has so far sent 950 doctors to Malaysia where they are serving in various hospitals.
The Malaysian minister expressed his happiness over the signing of the MoU and said that he was deeply impressed by the level of skill and competence of Pakistani workers engaged in construction and manufacturing sectors.
He agreed that there were bright chances for Pakistani manpower being absorbed in the construction and manufacturing sectors.
Earlier, the delegation visited Aga Khan Hospital and Medical University. While taking round various departments, the Malaysian team appreciated the quality of service and handling of the facilities by the staff. The delegation was also impressed by the hospital’s nursery where doctors and nurses were busy handling premature birth cases and maintaining incubators.
The Malaysian delegation was also led to the 27-storey under-construction building of MCB on the I. I. Chundrigar Road.
Senior Executive Vice President of MCB Shoaib Qureshi briefed the team about the construction work.
During the visit, Dr Onn appreciated the quality of construction work and the workmanship of engineers and labourers at the site. He said that he was happy to the see that Pakistan had acquired world class expertise in the field of construction.
He was told that country’s tallest building was designed and being constructed by Pakistani architects and builders under the supervision of MCB Civil and Engineering Department and with indigenously developed technology.—APP
