ISLAMABAD: Syed Zulfiqar Abbas Bukhari, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development said that Pakistan was passing through a critical stage, but with the strong efforts of the current government, Pakistan’s economy will start blossoming after 6-8 months. He was addressing the business community at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry. He said the current government was striving to lay the foundation for Pakistan to stand on its own feet and achieve sustainable economic growth. He said ease of doing business was the top priority of the Prime Minister and government would facilitate overseas Pakistanis to invest in Pakistan. He said one window facility was being arranged for foreign investors including overseas Pakistanis.
He said that Arab countries were absorbing own citizens in jobs due to which Overseas Pakistanis were facing problems of jobs loss. However, he said that a mechanism was being developed to reroute overseas Pakistan losing jobs in Arab countries to other potential markets. He said that the current government was making efforts for export of manpower to Malaysia, South Korea, Japan, Italy and many other countries.
He said Qatar has assured to import 100,000 persons from Pakistan for its various projects and later on more manpower would be exported to Qatar. He said a biometric system was being developed to prepare a comprehensive database of outgoing and incoming Pakistanis. He assured that the key issues of employment promoters would be addressed and their representatives would be included in foreign delegations to explore markets for Pakistani manpower. He said Community Welfare Attaches would be enhanced in foreign markets with high density of Pakistanis. He said that a Commission was being made for overseas Pakistanis association and assured that ICCI would be given representation in it.
Speaking at the occasion, Ahmed Hassan Moughal, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that Overseas Pakistanis were great asset and government should form policies to utilize their knowledge, skills and investment for the economic development of the country. He stressed that government should focus on producing skilled and technically trained human resource that could drive the industrialization in the country. He said that government should provide visa facilitation to employment promoters so that they could explore more markets for export of our human resource. He said government support overseas Pakistan in rehabilitation in their home country and help them in finding jobs in overseas markets. He said government should also launch investment schemes for Overseas Pakistanis to enhance their investment in Pakistan.
Rafat Farid Senior Vice President and Iftikhar Anwar Sethi Vice President ICCI said that Ministry of Overseas Pakistani and Human Resource Development in collaboration with Chambers of Commerce & Industry should focus on entrepreneurship development in the country that was the best instrument to reduce unemployment and poverty from the country.
