ISLAMABAD: The government is working on various proposals to facilitate export of manpower to Malaysia, South Korea, Japan, Italy and many other countries, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Syed Zulfiqar Abbas Bukhari said on Thursday.

Addressing businessmen at the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICC), Mr Bukhari said the Gulf countries were hiring their own citizens in jobs due to which overseas Pakistanis were facing jobs losses. However, a mechanism is being developed to reroute overseas Pakistanis losing jobs in Arab countries to other potential markets, he said.

He said Qatar has assured hiring of 100,000 persons from Pakistan for various projects and later on more manpower would be exported to Qatar. He said a biometric system is being developed to prepare a comprehensive database of outgoing and incoming Pakistanis.

The special assistant assured that key issues of employment promoters would be addressed and their representatives would be included in foreign delegations to explore markets for Pakistani manpower.

He said Community Welfare Attachés would be enhanced in foreign markets with high density of Pakistanis. He added that a commission was being made for Overseas Pakistanis Association and ICCI would be given representation in it.

President ICCI Ahmed Hassan Moughal said overseas Pakistanis were a great asset and government should form policies to utilise their knowledge, skills, and investment for the economic development of the country.

He said that government should provide visa facilitation to employment promoters so that they could explore more markets for export of local human resource.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2018