Islamabad
Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development (OP&HRD) has step up its efforts to send Pakistani skilled workforce to Japan by activating the Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) signed between the two countries last month.
“We have held a meeting with the Japanese government at the counselor-level to operationalize the MoC at the earliest,” a senior officer in the OP&HRD ministry told APP on Tuesday.
He said the overseas ministry had shared proposals and put some questions before the Japanese authorities in the meeting took place last week.
The proposed actions included establishment of Japanese language testing facility, skill development of Pakistani workers as per Japanese requirement and provision of the Overseas Employment Promoters list to Japan, he added.
He said the MoC signed with Japan would open up new avenues for Pakistanis to work in 14 Japanese sectors including construction, information technology, nursing, manufacturing, engineering and others.
Japan was facing serious shortage of workers at the moment due to aging society and shrinking population, pointed out.
He said the MoC with Japan would be implemented on the pattern of the government-to-government contract already in place with South Korea under which the intending emigrants had to qualify their language and skill tests.
The Japanese delegation was likely to visit the Overseas Employment Corporation (OEC) here to inspect the procedural system being followed to recruit Pakistani skilled manpower for South Korea, he added. “Japan will not compromise on language and skill criterion requires for getting jobs there.”
He said the overseas ministry was in constant contact with the National Vocational and Technical Training Commission, provincial Technical Education and Training Authorities and the language institutes to set up language and skill centers in every province to impart the youth Japanese language and skills at par with Japan’s labour market demand.—APP
