ISLAMABAD:The government would explore new avenues to boost overseas employment through extensive diplomatic efforts and signing of bilateral agreements.

Keeping in the view the impact of coronavirus on global economies, the government would explore new markets such as Japan and Germany that had great potential for employment opportunities due to their huge economic size and low population growth, said the Annual Development Plan (ADP) 2020-21 issued here on Friday.

“Canada is one of the emerging countries for expatriate workers, where demand for skilled and semi-skilled workers is high,” the ADP noted.

The Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development would work out a strategy to send Pakistani workers to new countries other than the GCC countries, where more than 96 percent of the emigrants were registered.

It was expected that there could be a decline in manpower export during first half of 2020-21 due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic but it may sustain in second half of the year.

“Pakistan is a major labor exporting country in the world with almost 11 million Pakistanis working in different countries with majority in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.”

It is feared that with the contraction in global economies, overseas Pakistanis might be impacted in terms of permanent or temporary unemployment.