Pakistan, Italy to sign labour agreement soon: Ambassador Jauhar

ISLAMABAD, Apr 30 (DNA): Ambassador of Pakistan to Italy, Jauhar Saleem
has said Pakistan and Italy will sign a labour agreement soon aimed at
providing employment opportunities to Pakistan’s skilled labor in
Italian market.

Talking to the media through video link from Rome, he said that
documents are being exchanged between the two sides to finalize the
labor agreement and negotiations are expected to commence soon in this
regard.

Jauhar Saleem informed that a draft agreement has been shared with the
Italian side in March 2022 and negotiations are expected to commence
soon. He said the labour agreement aims at providing comprehensive
market access to Pakistani workers to the Italian labour market.

Replying to a question, he said the embassy’s lobbying also helped in
Pakistan being re-included in the Italian Seasonal Work Visa Program for
2021 and 2022, which would offer diverse opportunities to our workers in
agriculture and services sectors.

Italy is expected to allow around seventy thousand seasonal workers from
selected countries in 2022 to come to Italy for work, he said.

Pakistani workers under Seasonal Work Visa Programme have started
arriving in Italy since March 2022, he said.

Italy has a huge demand for workers in the agriculture sector,
hospitality services, construction, logistics, truck drivers and
engineers and Information Technology (IT) Professionals.

According to Confindustria, the largest employer association of Italy,
there are around 193,000 vacancies available in the industrial sector.

Confindustria is of the view that 45,000 jobs are expected to be
available in the technology sector. There are estimates that around
200,000 Pakistanis are currently residing in Italy, he informed.

The Ambassador said this number is continuously increasing and in 2020
the Pakistan Embassy facilitated regularization of around 18000
undocumented Pakistanis workers by legalizing their stay in Italy
through an Amnesty Scheme of the Italian Government.

Italy, the third largest economy of the EU, has a 25.9 million strong
labour force with a labour participation rate of 59%, He said. He said
that its services sector employs 70.4% of the labour force whereas
industry and agriculture attract 25.8 and 3.68% of the total labour
force, respectively.

He said Italy is facing the issue of an aging population hosting the
second largest old population in the world after Japan.

Ambassador Jouhar said this signifies that Italy would continue to need
immigrant workers in several sectors of its economy.

In order to utilize this opportunity, Pakistan Embassy Rome intensively
engaged with the concerned Italian Authorities to explore opportunities
of sourcing labour from the Pakistani, he informed.

In 2021, the Italian side agreed in principle to negotiate a labour
service agreement with Pakistan.

Replying to another question, he said that some of the most in-demand
positions will include software/app designers and developers, computer
equipment designers and telecommunication systems designers. He said the
ongoing pandemic has enhanced demand for IT services.

Pakistan Embassy Rome is promoting sourcing of IT and BPO ( Business
Process Outsourcing) services from Pakistan and some Italian IT
companies have shown keen to invest in Pakistan`s IT sector, he said.
DNA

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