PESHAWAR: 3,500 workers to get jobs in South Korea, says minister
Bureau Report
PESHAWAR, Jan 25: Pakistan will export more than 3,500 skilled workers to South Korea by the end of March this year, says Ghulam Sarwar Khan, federal minister for Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis.
Speaking at a press conference here on Thursday, the minister said that the government had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Korean government in this regard.
He said the selection process for sending the workers had been finalised and they were being given one-month training following which they would join their overseas jobs.
The minister said that against 3,500 vacancies more than 28,000 people from across the country had applied and the selection had been made on merit.
Responding to a query the minister conceded that Pakistan was still unable to materialise the MoU signed with Malaysia for export of skilled labour in 2005 in letter and spirit.
Mr Khan termed the low wage structure in Malaysia as the major reason for that, which according to him, discouraged the Pakistani workers to work there.
“In Malaysia hardly an overseas worker can earn Rs12,000, which can not be considered a decent package, so naturally our workers were reluctant to avail the offer,” said the minister.
The minister said that the Malaysian government in early 2005 had placed a demand of 25,000 skilled labours, out of which 16,000 workers had so far been sent.
He said the government considered overseas employment a major driving factor for the overall economic growth of the country and accordingly steps were being taken for making the sector more efficient and vibrant.
Mr Khan said that the results of the incumbent government policies could be gauged from the fact that in 1999 total 78,000 workers were sent to various countries.
He said workers’ export in the 2005 year touched the figures of 145,000 followed by 186,000 in 2006.
He said the volume of foreign remittances had also recorded a remarkable increase during the same period, as in 1999 total remittances were $2 billion which swelled to $4.26 billion in 2005 and $5 billion in 2006.
Earlier, addressing a meeting of business community at the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the minister said the government was committed to upgrading the level of technical training in the country with a view to meeting the growing international demand of the skilled labour. He said a national level council had been set up which would work for the production of skilled labour in four provinces on the basis of public-private partnership.
He said that Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan had made legislation extending the role of the council to the provinces; however, the response from the NWFP government was still awaited.
SCCI president Liaqat Ahmad Khan and other people from the business community asked the minister to increase the number of technical and vocational training facilities in the NWFP.
They demanded that the quality of training should be upgraded making it in line with the requirement of the industrial sector of the province.
CONFERENCE: The minister said that the government would hold an overseas Pakistani investment conference in Islamabad on March 5-6, to motivate them to make investment in priority sectors of their choice, adds APP.
“In this conference Pakistani overseas investors from across the world will be invited,” he said.
The minister said the government was committed to the country’s development and for the purpose an amount of Rs415 billion had been earmarked by the PDSP in the current fiscal year as against Rs80 billion in 1999.
