Pakistan-China Joint Chambers of Commerce and Industry (PCJCCI) President, Wang Zihai has said that China’s decision to relocate a part of its manufacturing sector to cost-effective locations should help Pakistan if the country could make a strategy and train its labour according to the industry’s needs.

Chairing a think-tank session at the PCJCCI premises, he said that China was witnessing an economic transformation, following Europe’s model of relocating parts of its manufacturing sector to economically viable places that offered skilled labour at cheap rates.

PCJCCI Vice President Sarfaraz Butt said that around 40% of the major companies had planned to move factories from China to other locations, which included Vietnam, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philippines.

He said that Pakistan had the ninth largest labour force in the world, according to the labour force 2013-2014, clocking in at 57.24 million. Out of this, 3.4 million people were unemployed, while many were employed in areas not relevant to their expertise, he added.

PCJCCI Senior Vice President Ehsan Choudhry said that technical training should be provided to labourers so that they could take advantage of China’s move. Pakistan could make its unemployed manpower effective in the current scenario by providing relevant technical and factual training.

He was confident that Pakistan could attract the Chinese manufacturing sector by developing a trained workforce for industries. He termed the phenomenon a great industrial transfer, which had brought in plenty of opportunities.

One-third of Chinese manufacturers of textiles, garments, shoes and hats had already moved all, or a part, of their production centres outside China, he added.

The joint chamber's secretary general, Salahuddin Hanif, pointed out that the export of quality manpower was the main driver in the growth of remittances, adding that the country had a 60% economically active population that could increase productivity if their services were properly utilised.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk