ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Germany have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to facilitate the return of overseas Pakistanis.
According to the MoU, the German government will provide three million euros in assistance to Pakistan.
The MoU is signed between The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF) under the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis, here on Wednesday.
This 3 million Euro project will be jointly implemented by GIZ and the OPF from 2020 to 2023.
Under this project, a Pakistani-German Facilitation and Reintegration Centre (FRC) will also be setup in Lahore, Punjab, which will support in counseling and introduction to employment or entrepreneurship measures.
This initiative will assist in providing employment to Pakistani workers, in Pakistan, thus, reducing unemployment ratio in the country.
This partnership between the GIZ and the OPF is aimed at supporting returning Pakistanis to enhance their skill development for the purpose of re-integration in their home-country, accessing employment opportunities and/or entrepreneurship opportunities/start-up support and hence, supporting Pakistan's social and economic fabric for gainful employment.
Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) Sayed Zulfiqar Abbas Bukhari, German Ambassador to Pakistan, Bernhard Schlagheck, Secretary Overseas Pakistanis Dr Muhammad Hashim Popalzai, Managing Director OPF Dr Amer Sheikh, and Country Director of GIZ Tobias Becker, were also present on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, Bukhari said that, "this partnership between German and Pakistani government is the start of new dawn in the arena of support to the Pakistanis returning migrants. Through this partnership, Pakistan envisages to not only enhance the capacity of returning migrants but also creating a conducive support/advice system for their re-integration in the society. The said MoU has become all the more relevant in the background of pandemic which has also affected Pakistani workforce who are returning from abroad."
The German ambassador, while speaking on the occasion, said that Pak-German cooperation was a success story of more than 60 years of development cooperation.
"We have been working with Pakistan for development in the areas of basic and technical and vocational education, police reforms, governance, energy, health and social protection, etc. Our cooperation in the area of skills and social development of the returning migrants through this initiative is the beginning of a new era of development and cooperation with Pakistan," Schlagheck said.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
Comments
Comments are closed.