ISLAMABAD, Jan 4: The overseas employment promoters (OEPs) in the private sector are playing a vital role in promoting overseas employment and in enhancing the export of manpower.

Therefore the government should further facilitate and encourage them in their activities so that they could explore more opportunities of overseas employment for their human resource with leading employers and contribute effectively towards strengthening the economy.

These views were expressed by Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) President Mian Shaukat Masud and Vice-President Mohammad Ishtiaq Qureshi in a statement.

They said millions of Pakistani workers had got employment abroad since 1971 and more than 75 to 80 per cent overseas employment had been managed by the licenced overseas employment promoters which showed their crucial role in reducing unemployment and improving lives of the people.

They said overseas Pakistanis were also contributing significantly to national economy by sending foreign remittances which provided a strong cushion to foreign exchange reserves, and added that further encouragement of OEPs would result in enhanced export of manpower, which would bring many benefits to the country.

The ICCI president and vice-president expressed their reservations over the performance of the Overseas Employment Corporation (OEC) despite the fact that the government had equipped this organisation with plenty of resources, infrastructure and other facilities.

They called for merging the Bureau of Immigration and OEC to save unnecessary expenditure and to streamline their working.

They said these organisations should provide proper help and support to their foreign employers whenever they faced any difficulty in foreign countries.

They further demanded re-starting of the practice of giving awards to best performing OEPs to encourage them. They also stressed on the need for changing and upgrading immigration rules which had not been changed since 1979 to bring them up to the present day requirements.

Mian Shaukat Masud said technical training centres and vocational institutes were victims of bureaucratic approach and called upon the government to activate them for providing modern training and developing skills to the manpower according to the market demand of foreign employers so that Pakistan could export well-trained and better skilled human resource, which would not only improve the image of the country, but also play a positive role in improving the economic activities by investing and spending more in their home country.