The Ministry of Planning Development & Special Initiatives organized a seminar on “Creating Gainful Employment Opportunities” in the Auditorium of P-Block, Pak Secretariat.

Dated : 7 February 2020

The Ministry of Planning Development & Special Initiatives organized a seminar on “Creating Gainful Employment Opportunities” in the Auditorium of P-Block, Pak Secretariat. The Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, Mohammad Jahanzeb Khan chaired the seminar. The renowned Demographer, Dr. Durr-e- Nayab, Director Research, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), Prof. Dr. Aliya Hashmi Khan, former Director, Social Sciences, Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad, Dr. Nasir Khan, Executive Director, National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC), Islamabad and Mr. Saad Gillani, Senior Programme Officer, ILO, Islamabad spoke at the seminar as panelists. A large number of officers/participants belonging to different federal Ministries, researchers from PIDE, the academia, Skill Development Council, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment etc. attended the seminar.
The Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission in his welcome address highlighted the significance of creating gainful opportunities in the country and expressed the strong commitment of the Government to explore more gainful employment opportunities as a part and parcel of its draft Growth and Equity Strategy. He also highlighted the importance of transforming the agriculture sector especially the Livestock and food processing having the potential to create gainful employment. He also emphasized on the changing global conditions, increasing use of technology and competitiveness being the critical factors to be considered. He also urged the facilitative role of the government to achieve the goal of growth and employment.
The panelists deliberated upon the demographic composition of Pakistan highlighting that more than 60% of overall population comprising of youth. Every year a huge number of people are entering the labour force which is not only creating the pressure on health, education and training needs of the workforce but also posing a challenge of absorbing them productively in labour market to turn it into demographic dividend and avoid demographic disaster. The panelists also stressed the critical significance of digitization to effectively meet the future work challenges and emphasized on the technology adoption and promoting the culture of self-employment. The importance of Skill development and creating a match between the industry demand and training of TVET sector was also emphasized. The efforts of the Government of Pakistan in terms of interventions under Kamyab Jawan and Hunamand Pakistan were also shared.The representative from ILO also deliberated upon the issues of Labour market pertaining to collective bargaining rights, educated youth unemployment (11%) almost double than overall unemployment and Decent Work etc. The panelists also shared some policy recommendations. A question answer session was also held.
The Deputy Chairman Planning Commission appreciated the efforts of organizers for convening the seminar, extended the gratitude to the panelists for productive discussions and urged the organizers to make a smaller working group to firm up concrete policy recommendations to be made part of government’s Growth and Equity strategy and work out the budgetary requirements for the purpose.