ISLAMABAD – The Pakistan government has formally requested Kingdom of SaudiArabia to enhance the quota of Pakistani workforce in multi-billiondollars’ project of New Taif City.
“Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis and HumanResource Development Sayed Zulfikar Bukhari requested the Saudi authoritiesto enhance Pakistani manpower’s quota in New Taif Project,” an officialsource in the ministry told APP on Tuesday.
The official said the request was formally conveyed by the specialassistant in his recent visit to Saudi Arabia where he held discussion withSaudi authorities to explore new avenues for bolstering Pakistanimanpower’s export to Saudi Arabia.
He said the project was aimed at establishing new airport, developing OkazCity, establishing technical oasis, residential areas, university andindustrial city in New Taif.
The official said Saudi Arabia had also extended an offer for Pakistanimanpower’s export through ‘Musaned’- a digital platform launched by SaudiArabia to facilitate laborer recruitment process and ensure their rightsprotection.
Pakistan would send its workforce to Saudi Arabia through ‘Musaned’ shortlyas the process would take some months, he added.
Besides Saudi Arabia, he said the Overseas Ministry was planning to link upits digital portal with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for setting updirect link between its workforce and foreign employers.
The move would eventually minimize the middle-man’s role in overseasemployment andhelp the country to train its workforce as per theinternational markets’ demand, he added.
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He said UAE Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE) hadoffered its labour market’s database access to Pakistan which would provideup-dated information of job opportunities in the Emirates.
The official said Pakistan was ready to connect its own job portal with theUAE’s that would offer more and better job opportunities to Pakistani youth.
He said the MOHRE had also agreed to activate the joint committee, formedfor implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding recently signed toensure the protection of Pakistani workers’ rights and resolving theirlegal job disputes in the Emirates.
According to the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human ResourceDevelopment, as many as 568,464 Pakistanis had been registered for overseasemployment from September 2018 to September 2019.
Similarly, some 424,867 went abroad for various job assignments during thecorresponding period of 2017.
