OEC Plan For Promotional Campaigns Abroad Likely In Dead Water

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Sep, 2018 ) :An idea to promote the domestic potential workforce abroad through extensive media campaigns and advertisements was unlikely to see the light of day since Overseas Employment Corporation (OEC) had been struggling for over a year to go-ahead with the plan due to uninterrupted delay in a fund release.

"The idea was floated to tap a sudden decline came after some economic shifts in the countries of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) since 2015 when the number of per year out-going workforce was stood at some 946,571," OEC, Deputy Managing Director (DMD) Muhammad Jamshed told APP.

"An effective strategy is required on war footing to cover the drastic decline of over 0.7 million as around 216,164 Pakistanis proceeded this year for employment," he added.

Jamshed said, earlier a PC-I of the Rs125 million had been worked out by the OEC last year for immediate marketing and promotional activities through State Life Emigrant's Insurance Fund (SLEIF) Account of the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development (MOP&HRD).

The DMD said that a request to use SLEIF accounts was turned down by the authorities concerned on technical grounds though it was approved by Departmental Working Party (DWP) of the Ministry.

OEC's mandate as assigned under the Emigration Ordinance, 1979 Rule 4 (1), he pointed out that "it may be authorized to utilize the funds from SLEIF Account.

Currently, billions of rupees are being accumulated in the SLEIF Account and these fund can be utilized for all activities related to promotion of employment abroad," he added.

Responding to a question, the DMD said the promotional campaigns were required through foreign electronic, print and social media as well as at OEC's web portal, adding UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Libya, Malaysia and South Korea have been identified as potential countries for these drives and campaigns.

Currently, he said, the country had over 7 million skilled and semi-skilled workforce, out of which 2.5 million met the international standards and could contribute significantly in increasing foreign exchange reserves by sending remittances.

Another OEC official said that at present eight countries were in agreement with Pakistan of receiving skilled and non-skilled labour but the signed Memorandum of Understandings were not being exploited to their full potential, he regretted.

He underlined the need for increasing government-to-government contacts and hiring more Community Welfare Attaches(CWAs).

He complained, the 14 CWAs, most of them stationed at GCC, were hired to inform the departments concerned about new jobs in different companies but they were only busy in enjoying the perks and privileges of the post.

"The department is standing nowhere in competition with private agents as they were sending around 5,00,000 people per year," the official said.

The private companies could convince foreign employers to hire Pakistani manpower due to several reasons and incentives, which the OEC could not extend under existing rules and regulations, he added.

He was of the opinion that there should be an extensive and innovative strategy to engage the skilled workforce, considering the international market's requirements , besides their employment-potential in different countries.