Ayesha Saba

Pakistan needs to adopt a strategy that can stimulate increased foreign remittances by exporting skilled workforce, experts said. Junaid Ahmed, Senior Research Economist at Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), said while talking to WealthPK that in today’s globalised economy, Pakistani workers are increasingly looking for job opportunities beyond their home country. Public and private employment agencies play an important role in matching available jobs in the countries of destination with suitably qualified workers.

“Pakistan needs to have an edge as far as the skilled manpower is concerned. Our technical institutes and universities are producing skilled graduates in thousands annually and these are the workers Pakistan should concentrate on,” Junaid said. “As a policy matter, the government should create attractive investment opportunities for more remittances inflows. The government also needs to explore new markets for manpower exports in order to get a sustainable level of remittances,” he suggested.

Junaid said that in order to facilitate the integration of skilled manpower into specific societies, a special syllabus should be devised for imparting knowledge about different countries. He emphasised the importance of the private sector playing a role and training the labour to meet the specific needs of host countries.

“The youth should be equipped with hi-tech skills so that they could be easily absorbed in different countries in addition to catering to the immediate needs of the projects related to China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC),” he said. Junaid said the formulation of appropriate policy is hampered due to incomplete information of the number of workers abroad and total remittances sent to the economy.

“The government should strengthen efforts to reduce the use of informal remittance channels, and encourage the use of formal banking channels,” he suggested. Zahid Mehmood, Coordinator Department of Economics at National University of Modern Languages (NUML), told WealthPK that the Pakistani diaspora are contributing to the development of the economy by sending remittances, which is the second largest source of foreign exchange after exports.

The migration of Pakistani workers is mostly concentrated in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries (96%) with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) hosting the majority. To export Pakistan's youth to different potential markets around the world, Zahid said Pakistan must equip them with proper market-driven skills.

The latest data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) showed that the remittances kept falling and declined to $2.1 billion in November from $2.5 billion during the corresponding month of last year. The inflows declined by 5% compared to $2.215 billion in October this year. During July-November FY23, the remittances fell to $12 billion from $13.286 billion during the same period of last fiscal year.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk