ISLAMABAD: Saudi Arabia has agreed to a request by Pakistan for anincreased share of the labour force in the multi-billion dollar New TaifCity development.
“I asked the Saudi labour minister for a larger quota for Pakistanimanpower in the New Taif City project,” said Sayed Zulfikar Bukhari SpecialAssistant to the Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis and Human ResourceDevelopment, during an interview with Arab News.
“He has agreed and promised to set up a proper mechanism for this. TheSaudi labour minister told me that Pakistani manpower will play a big partin the project, and that his leadership also asked for this,” Bukhari said.
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have formed working groups to develop proceduresfor this transfer of manpower, added Bukhari, who will visit the Kingdom inthe coming months to finalize the arrangements.
“The working group will first connect the (online recruitment) portals andthen we will have numbers to process the manpower,” he said, adding thatrecent development initiatives undertaken by Saudi Arabia have generated alot of economic activity and opportunities.
“The New Taif City project aims to build a new airport, develop Okaz City,and establish a technical oasis, residential areas, a university and anindustrial city, so they need a lot of skilled manpower because Saudi localmanpower is not enough for a mega project like that.”
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Saudi Arabia has launched Musaned, a digital platform designed to improvethe recruitment process and ensure that workers’ rights are protected.
Once it is connected to Pakistan’s online jobs portal, there will be asteady flow of demand for labour from the Kingdom, Bukhari said.
“Musaned is basically about all domestic workers but (the Saudis) agreed toincrease the scope of domestic workers from household helpers to includemanagers and other skilled labour under the shared portal system,” he added.
