ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said the government considers overseas Pakistanis a major asset and true ambassadors of the country.
The prime minister said this while chairing a meeting to review performance of Overseas Pakistanis Division (OPD) held here at the Prime Minister's House Friday.
Aziz asked the OPD to encourage and facilitate effective participation of the overseas Pakistanis who were keen to participate in the country's economic development.
He underlined the need to persuade overseas Pakistanis living in different parts of the world including the US, European Union, Middle East and Far East regions to invest more in Pakistan in view of an extremely favourable investment climate in the country.
While expressing the government's resolve to establish industrial zones all across the country, the prime minister agreed to the proposal of establishing an industrial estate at the Chakri interchange near Islamabad by the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF) in collaboration with the government of Punjab. In the proposed plan the land will be provided by the Punjab government while infrastructure will be arranged by OPF on an agreed profit-sharing formula.
Aziz said the government was focusing on skills development, so that Pakistani workers could fetch higher wages. The areas of particular interest are construction, hotel services and engineering areas, he added.
Regarding voting rights for the overseas Pakistanis holding dual nationality, he said the issue needed further deliberation and called for an appropriate proposal to be forwarded to the Election Commission of Pakistan.
Earlier, the prime minister was apprised of the role, responsibility and functioning of the OPD which was established in 2004 under the Ministry of Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis to facilitate Pakistanis living abroad.The meeting was also briefed about the efforts made by the OPD in improving their working capacity to ensure better facilitation of overseas Pakistanis.
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