He said China was witnessing economic renewal at massive scale by following the European model of relocating some of its manufacturing sectors to the economically viable places with regard to low wages of the skilled labour. He said Pakistan could attract Chinese manufacturing sector by developing trained workforce for industries.
He termed this phenomenon as a great industrial transfer which could produce plenty of opportunities for Pakistan. Afridi proposed that China should assist Pakistan in empowering its labour force in line with its industrial requirements by formulating collaborative research institutes and capacity building organizations that would impart vocational training to Pakistani labour as per Chinese work ethics including language and communication.
Afridi said that he will try to convince the present government to take immediate steps for modifying the existing vocational institutes to generate more work force for industrial joint ventures of China and Pakistan.
Speaking on this occasion, PCJCCI Senior Vice President Ahmed Hasnain said Pakistan owned the 9th largest labour force in the world. Quoting the Labour Force Survey 2017-2018, he said 4.40 million people out of 63.890 million workforce were unemployed and rest were employed to jobs that do not meet their area of expertise.
He opined that export of quality manpower was important for the growth of remittances. Therefore, in the existing population structure of Pakistan, over 60 percent manpower could be developed as a productive asset of the country through skill development programs focused on China-Pakistan industrial collaborations, he said.
Earlier, Liu Chengqiang said he was visiting Pakistan to examine the environment for transfer of industries in Pakistan for which he received positive indicators.