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Manpower export likely to increase by 25%

By Razi Syed

KARACHI: The manpower export is likely to increase by around 25 percent to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and Libya besides other Middle Eastern states in 2009 as compared with last year, Pakistan Overseas Exporters Promotion Association (POEPA) said.

“The recession in world economy including in Middle East except SA is blessing in disguise for semi and skill manpower of the country,” Chairman POEPA, Hanif Rinch said Thursday.

He said around 25 percent manpower export to KSA was expected during 2009 besides 20 percent more to Libya on back of huge development projects.

He said around 0.5 million manpower in different workmanship categories is needed in KSA and around 50,000 is needed in Libya besides in other Middle East countries.

Rinch said despite expected decline of 3 percent growth rate in several Middle Eastern countries, KSA remains steadfast before the economic recession.

He said the construction of Jeddah New Port City, automation of motorways and building of modern Madina and Mekkah cities would absorb 70 percent of the manpower of the country.

He further said around 140 million people in different cadres are working in Middle East, out of which around 18 percent are working in private sector.

He said around 80 percent of the locals are working in the government sector while rest of the working class is in the Middle East countries including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and KSA are overseas workers.

He said the share of manpower export promoters in private sector was around 90 percent, which were contributing a large share in foreign exchange earnings in the country.

He said the projects in KSA would be completed by the end of 2011 and promoters in private sector were striving hard to meet this challenge.

He said the manpower export to Libya would be catered from Northern parts of the country including Peshawar and Lahore.

The Ministry of Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistani has allowed four to five overseas manpower exporter promoters in private sector for export of manpower to Republic of Korea.

Under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Korean Labour Ministry and Overseas Employment Corporation (OEC), Ministry of Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis, around 6500 workers are required in South Korea.

Rinch said OEC, a public sector organisation has been authorised to recruit, train and send Pakistani workers to Korea on work visa.

OEC is also imparting training to workers in line with the market requirements and it has so far trained around 3000 workers.

He said the demand of skilled Pakistani labour was growing in Korea as the Korean Labour Ministry has already lauded the performance of Pakistani workforce.

The Korean government and entrepreneurs face lesser problems in recruiting Pakistani workforce as compared to labour from other countries like India and Sri Lanka.

He asked the government to reactivate commercial sections in the Pakistani embassies to generate opportunities where highly skilled and skilled workforce is required, as our labour has always been hardworking overseas. He said over 7.5 million overseas Pakistanis live in various countries including Middle East and Far East, Europe, United States and Canada.

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