Lahore, December 15, 2022 (PPI-OT):China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is likely to create about 575,000 direct and over one million indirect jobs in four special economic zones (SEZs) to be set up in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan provinces, stated by S.M Naveed, Chairman Special Economic Zones Authority (SEZA) during an interactive session held at C.M Secretariat today. He said that the second and third phase of CPEC will bring immense opportunities for Pakistani people in job and business sectors.
S.M Naveed Chairman SEZA added that in the first phase of CPEC, some Chinese companies faced problems in finding suitable people to work on energy and infrastructural projects because there is an acute lack of skilled labourers in Pakistan. In order to prepare Pakistani youth to find employment opportunities in the second and third phase of CPEC, we are planning to conduct short-term courses to train the aspirants in the respective fields, for which they align their future courses accordingly. He added that unemployment is one of the major challenges which the Pakistani government is facing. According to recent statistics of the World Bank, about 6 percent Pakistanis are unemployed. And to solve this issue, Pakistan needs to create more jobs in the future.
S.M Naveed added that we have conducted a study to assess employment opportunities in four out of nine SEZs including KP’s Rashakai, Sindh’s Dhabeji, Punjab’s Allama Iqbal and Balochistan’s Bostan, to find out potential jobs and industries in the SEZs, we found out that the SEZs offer employments in different fields for which the local youth should be trained before the initiation of the industrial phase.
He said that with potential industries including food processing, cooking oil, ceramics, gems and jewellery, marble, minerals, agriculture machinery, iron and steel, motorbike assembling, electrical appliances and automobile, SEZs are likely to produce 55,000 jobs for locals, and has a potential to create 80,000 jobs with potential industries including food and beverages, pharmaceutical, electronics, automobile and plastic related products. He said that the trained and skilled labour and engineers will not only get good jobs in the SEZs, but also enable Chinese and local companies to find skilled professionals from local areas rather than hiring them from other parts of the country.
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