ISLAMABAD, Jun 11 (APP):The Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development (OP&HRD) has assisted 625,203 people to go abroad for prospective job opportunities in multiple trades during the 2019, said the Pakistan Economic Survey (PES) 2019-20.
According to the report issued on Thursday, the manpower export had registered a marked increase of 63 per cent in the 2019, specifically due to the stabilization of Gulf economies and special initiatives of Pakistan’s government to boost overseas employment for its labour force.
Only 382,439 emigrants went abroad for different job assignments during the corresponding year.
During the 2019, Saudi Arabia (KSA) remained a top destination for Pakistani workers as 332,713 found job in the kingdom, constituting 53 per cent of this year’s total emigrants.
The manpower export to KSA went up by over 229 per cent as compared to the corresponding period (2018) when only 100,910 proceed there.
The KSA was followed by the United Arab Emirates as 211,216 went there, constituting over 33 per cent of the total exported manpower in 2019.
Manpower export to the UAE registered a nominal increase as 208,635 went to the Emirates during the corresponding year.
A large number of Pakistani workers also availed jobs in other countries such as Oman (28,391), Qatar (19,327), Malaysia (11,323) and 8,189 to Bahrain.
The PES said the increase in manpower export in 2019 was positive in terms of remittances which played a vital role to stabilize the economy and containing the current account deficit in the country.
The survey also shared the province-wise break up, showing that the highest number of workers, who went abroad from Punjab, was 312,439.
The Punjab was followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from where 186,176 proceeded abroad for various assignments.
From Sindh the number of registered workers increased from 41,155 in 2018 to 57,171 in 2019.
Number of skilled workers increased from 142,486 in 2018 to 285,932 (101 percent) in 2019. Similarly, there was an increase of 15 percent in semi skilled categories during 2019.
Highlighting the government’s initiatives for boosting manpower export, the survey mentioned creation of a task force, signing of Memorandum of Understanding with Japan, Oman and the UAE, and establishment of one window center to expedite workers’ protection process.
“Qatar selected Pakistan as one of the eight countries for establishment of Qatar Residency Permits in Pakistan,” it noted.
The initiative was aimed at facilitating the intending emigrants at home so that they could get job immediately after reaching Qatar.
Linkages had also been set up between Overseas Employment Corporation and National Vocational and Technical Training Commission to provide details of available overseas jobs to the intending emigrants and, to maintain the data of skilled Pakistani workers.
The PES said the OP&HRD ministry was also striving to explore new job markets for Pakistani workers such as Japan, Germany, Canada, Denmark, Austria, Poland and Romania.
“Pakistan is the second largest manpower/labour exporting country of the South Asia. Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment (BE&OE) has [so far] registered more than 11.11 million emigrants for employment abroad.”
