Beating other regional players like Bangladesh and India in manpower export, Pakistan has emerged as the ‘Manpower Export Leader’ in the region by sending around 224,705 workers to different countries for various job assignments in 2020, despite the coronavirus pandemic.

Bangladesh sent 217,699 workers abroad and India 94,145 for employment purposes during the same period, the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and HR Development said in a tweet.

Adding to the tweet, it said, “Pakistan becomes a ‘Manpower Export Leader’ in the region despite the pandemic, leaving behind India and Bangladesh in the export of manpower in 2020.”

According to the Pakistan Economic Survey, launched by the government last week, over 11.4 million Pakistanis have gone abroad for employment in more than 50 countries.

It said the migration of Pakistani workers was mostly concentrated to Gulf Cooperation Council countries (96 per cent), with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates hosting the majority.

However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, overall, a declining trend was observed in terms of emigrants registered in 2020, including GCC countries, it mentioned, adding that Saudi Arabia was the main destination for the Pakistani workforce where more than 60pc of emigrants went followed by UAE (24pc) and Oman (4.6pc).

Out of the total, 136,339 people went to Saudi Arabia, 53,676 to the UAE, 10,336 to Oman, and many other countries during 2020.

The survey said the ministry was striving to boost the export of Pakistani manpower by exploring new job markets in the world.

Remittances exceed $2bn for 12th straight month

Meanwhile, remittances from Pakistani workers employed abroad exceeded $2 billion for the 12th month in a row in May 2021, with the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) crediting "proactive policy measures by the Government and the State Bank of Pakistan encouraging expats to use formal channels for their transactions" for the record inflows.

According to the central bank, "Remittances received during May 2021 amounted to $2.5bn, which is 33.5pc higher than the same month last year. These were also higher than the monthly average of $2.4bn during July-April in the fiscal year 2020-21."

It further said the remittance inflows during July-May FY21 were mainly sourced from Saudi Arabia ($7bn), United Arab Emirates ($5.6bn), United Kingdom ($3.7bn) and the United States ($2.5bn).