At the moment we have been going through tough times of our life. World is battling with Corona Virus and it shattered all big economies globally. It is the biggest global crisis since the Second World War. In Pakistan Travel and Tourism Industry has badly affected particularly overseas employment promoters sector.
Always look on the bright side, no matter how serious and sad all of this is, there is always a brighter side because crises also bring great opportunities.
If all goes well, hopefully by the end of this year we will overcome this pandemic Inshallah and in 2021 all over the World Nurses and Doctors will be the first profession of demand followed by some other trades. WHO says the world needs 6 million more nurses to achieve global health targets.
PROSPECTIVE OCCUPATIONS IN 2021
Health sector (specially Doctors and Nurses) Construction
Agriculture
Engineering and I.T.
FOREIGN WORKERS DESTINATIONS IN 2021
Europe, Saudi Arabia, U.K. and Japan.
EUROPE
Europe is emerging as potential market for foreign workers due to several factors particularly aging society, brain drain along with fly out skilled labor towards rich states and in current scenario increasing unexpected death rates from COVID-19 pandemic.
Counties in Europe facing shortage of workers:
Spain, Germany, Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland and Slovenia
SAUDI ARABIA
Due to continuous fall in Oil price, Saudi Arab introduced Saudization and Oil free economy model to make Saudi Arabia less dependent on oil which directly impacts foreign workers future resulting exodus of foreign workers, but since then no any breakthrough in Oil price war we have noticed and now Saudi Arab is negotiating with Russia and Mexico in stabilizing the Oil price.
In order to rely on Oil free economy they started ban foreign workers in certain trades but in coming years Saudi Arab will soon realize the importance of foreign workers skills and the vacuum which has been created due to not recruiting foreign workers since so long this situation can enforce them to revise their policies of hiring foreign workers . Secondly at present Saudi companies returning back most of its staff on leave due to Lock Down but as soon as the situation stabilize a speedy demand of workers may be created and this will be the bright side of this worst scenario.
U.K.
According to recent reports, soon the country could run out of health care workers who are essential in fighting the sprawling pandemic. They have been facing shortage of Health care and I.T professionals since so long and under new post-Brexit rules migrants will have to meet a number of criteria to qualify for a work visa.
JAPAN
Japan and Pakistan signed a memorandum of cooperation in Dec. 2019 aimed at paving the way for skilled Pakistani workers to work in Japan and expects to hire 340,000 such laborers in 14 trades from across the world over the next five years.
But Covid-19 slowing down this recruitment process , Pakistan has not yet started any recruitment process for Japan after signing the MOC, we are at very initial stage to streamline the recruitment process and still a lot of things about the mechanism of hiring from Pakistan need to be announced by both Governments , there is an urgent need to introduce industrial skill and Japanese-language test centers which are among the criteria for candidates to qualify for the working visa but other countries already started the hiring process and all of them are in the midst of application procedures for work in Japan like Vietnam, India Myanmar and Philippine but many of them are still unable to obtain working visas due to the corona virus crisis.
At this stage Role of Pakistani overseas employment promoters in strengthening Pakistan’s economy is really appreciable. Pakistan Overseas Employment Promoter Association,(POEPA) the only platform of manpower exporters never treated equally like other associations in making important decisions in exporting manpower.
MANPOWER EXPORTERS SUFFERED MOST:
Pakistan Overseas Employment promoters, the major stake holder of generating foreign remittance already suffered a lot. In a very short span of time Manpower Exporters hardest hit twice, initially they hit by Saudization and its oil free economy policies which directly affected all foreign workers and now manpower exporters business devasted by COVID-19 pandemic. Most of them shut down their businesses as they do not have enough funds to pay the salaries of their staff.
This sector which is also called the back bone of Economy due to its huge contribution of generating foreign remittance we can say that it is one of the leading foreign remittance generator pillar of Pakistan which is about 24 Billion US$ annually. Unfortunately it has been neglected since so long, never supported by any Government particularly after the down fall of Saudi Arab, always working on their own.
Due to Lake of ownership by state, Exporting Industry status not awarded even an exclusive leading export industry of Pakistan without getting any relief or subsidiary like other goods export industries. Recently POEPA (Pakistan Overseas Employment promoters association) has submitted an appeal to Prime Minister to get bailout package so that they can survive until the good time comes and serves the economy of this country once again by facilitating to generate more foreign remittance, now they are still waiting for the positive outcomes of their request. In the light of past experience it seems very difficult that they can get any handsome relief but as we are highlighting the bright side of our business we should hope for the best. Now government should realize that by supporting the Overseas Employment Promoter’s sector government can increase country’s foreign remittance which strengthens Pakistan economy.