Foreign exchange remittances from Pakistani workers abroad have reached US $ 12.895 billion during first 10 months of current fiscal year against US $ 11.57 billion in comparable period of 2012-13.
The foreign exchange remittances from Pakistani workers abroad during financial year 2012-13 were US$ 13.922 billion. According to the ministry of overseas Pakistanis and human resource development on Sunday, the government is considering a proposal to substantially boost foreign remittances and foreign exchange reserves as Gulf region is to be effectively tapped by exporting the maximum manpower.
However, the government is expecting good opportunities of manpower export during the event of Expo 2020 in Dubai. Moreover, massive new construction plans in Saudi Arabia will also provide opportunities for Pakistani manpower which will decrease not only unemployment rate in the country but also boost up the remittances.
The ministry said the vision of government was to promote export of Pakistani manpower abroad to elevate the living conditions of working class and secure the decent working conditions for them. It said since 1971 up to March 2014, around 7.4 million overseas Pakistanis working/living around the globe with main concentration of Overseas Pakistanis are in Middle East 49.2 percent, Europe 28.3 percent and America 16.2 percent.
In 2013, United Arab Emirates (UAE) has hired almost 0.1 million more people as compared to the last year.
The comparison among province shows that the manpower export is higher from Punjab as compared to other provinces. During 2009-2013, the highest number of workers went abroad for employments were from Punjab 333,121 followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) 150,418. However, the situation is not encouraging in Sindh and Balochistan as compared to Punjab during this period.
