ISLAMABAD-The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF) to provide technical assistance amounting to three million Euros for re-integration of the returning migrant workers in society through their skill development.
The MoU was signed by GIZ Country Director Tobias Becker and OPF Managing Director Dr. Amer Sheikh in presence of German Ambassador to Pakistan Bernhard Schlagheck and Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Sayed Zulfikar Abbas Bukhari.
Under this project, a Pakistani-German Facilitation and Re-integration Centre (FRC) would be set up in Lahore to provide technical support to the workers on employment and entrepreneurship initiatives.
The partnership between GIZ and OPF would help returning migrant workers to enhance their skill and access employment opportunities. It would also provide them technical assistance in starting their own start-up.
The 3-million-euro project would jointly be implemented by the GIZ and OPF in next three years.
Speaking on the occasion, SAPM Zulfikar Bukhari expressed gratitude to the government of Germany for providing three million Euros to the government for facilitation of its workforce in times of Coronavirus.
He said the project would enable the government to help the returning workers in setting up their own micro businesses and upgrading their skills. “We have already set up a portal at Overseas Employment Corporation to register the returning workers in almost 18 fields.”
The SAPM said the initiative would help the workers explore new job markets across the globe with their skill up-gradation, besides opening up their own businesses at home.
The MoU had become more relevant in the view of pandemic that had affected the Pakistani workforce, returning from abroad for losing their jobs in other countries, Bukhari remarked.
German Ambassador Bernhard Schlagheck said Pak-German cooperation had been a success story for the last 60 years.
He said: “We have been working with Pakistan for development in the areas of basic and technical and vocational education, police reforms, governance, energy, health and social protection. Our cooperation in the area of skills and social development of the returning migrants through this initiative is the beginning of a new era of development and cooperation with Pakistan.”
The GIZ, Pakistan is working on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development for sustainable socio-economic development of the country.