Germany is the biggest EU partner to Pakistan:Member German Parliament Christoph Strasser

Lahore: Provincial Minister for Labour & HR Raja Ashfaq Sarwar has said that Punjab lauded the efforts and cooperation of German government in acquiring Pakistan GSP Plus status, allowing increased assess of Pakistani products particularly textile and garments EU markets and implementation on ratified international labour convention.

He said this while addressing a seminar on GSP Plus and challenges in compliance of labour convention, here today.

Member German Parliament and Commissioner Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid Christoph Strasser, Minister for Minority Affairs Khalil Tahir Sandhu, former Minister Finance Hafeez A. Pasha, Secretary Labour Ishrat Ali, General Secretary Pakistan Workers Federation Zahor Ahmad Awan and office-bearers of labour organizations participated in the seminar.

The participants expressed their views on the opportunities of GSP Plus status to increase duty-free exports of Pakistani products to EU, implementation of international labour standards and convention by ILO, EU and other human rights organizations, conditions of labour community, potential increase in export, minimum wages, equal remunerations to women workers and other related issues.

Raja Ashfaq Sarwar said that despite war against terrorism and other untoward conditions, Pakistan has fully benefitted from GSP Plus and wants to sustain this opportunity to further strengthen its economy and consumption of Pakistan workforce in international labour market.

He said that elimination of child and bonded labour are our top priority for which a mega project costing Rs.5.2 billion has been launched along with activating district vigilance committees and making sentences more stringent, he added. He said that Punjab government is taking concrete steps for policy making and implementation on labour laws to eliminate child and bonded labour along with introducing state-of-the-art training courses to Pakistani labour so as to enhance the opportunities of international economy based workforce.

Member German Parliament Christoph Strasser stressed upon the need to strengthen trade unionism and protection of human rights to sustain GSP Plus opportunity. Economic relations between Pakistan and Germany have more strengthen and best working relationship is present between both the government to enhance trade as Germany is the biggest EU partner to Pakistan for its textile and other industrial export sectors, he added. Former Federal Minister Hafeez A. Pasha, Secretary Labour Ishrat Ali, office-bearers and representatives of different labour and employers organizations also addressed the seminar.