POEPA ready to cooperate on recruitment of manpower

* Draft in this regard will be tabled in parliament on April 30

KARACHI: The Labour and Manpower Ministry should invite Pakistan Overseas Exporters Promotion Association (POEPA) for suggestions of recruitment of manpower to various countries.

Talking to Daily Times on Wednesday, chairman POEPA, Hanif Rinch said Federal Minister for Labour and Manpower, Syed Khursheed Ahmad Shah announced that Pakistan was expected to send 430,000 workers to various countries including Libya, Oman and Qatar.

Rinch welcomed the Minister for inviting suggestions from the genuine stakeholders of the sector to incorporate in the draft IRO 2010, which would be tabled in the parliament by April 30, 2010.

He said, “On many occasions, the employment quota goes into drain due to non professional approach of the officials to appoint non sectoral agencies for recruitment of workers”.

He said Pakistan has exported around 273,000 manpower in 2008 and within the next few months it was expected to send 435,000 workers to various countries around the world.

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

Pakistan was exporting its manpower to different countries of the world since 1971. About 4.9 million workers of various categories had been preceded abroad for employment from 1971 to 2008. He said POEPA overseas training centers impart the technical training to workforce in order equip them in accordance with the line of employers' requirements.

He said these centres along with technical training to the workers also conduct language and culture training test on pretext of sending them for employment.

Due to poor policy, the manpower export to Malaysia and Saudi Arabia experienced a setback in past days and there was a need to rectify such anomalies in future, Mr Rinch added. He said Italy is also in need of Pakistani manpower and an MoU would be signed soon and this MoU with the government of Italy would streamline workers flow from Pakistan to work in Italy.

Pakistan can supply different categories of skilled and unskilled workers for inclusion in Italy's seasonal workers scheme on regular footing and under specific quota, which could bring economic dividend to Pakistan and Italy. He said every year around 1,000 visas were being issued to Pakistani workers by Italy and Italy wanted it to be enhanced to 5000. He appreciated the Ministry's initiative on a plan to meet the academic expenses of workers' children who are willing to go abroad for higher education.

He welcomed the current visit of director, Pakistan chapter of Human Resources Development Service of Korea (HRD Korea), Jeong Jae Seo. Jae Seo is currently visiting Pakistan and would hold meeting with concerned stakeholders in Karachi and Lahore.