{"id":556531,"date":"2026-07-16T07:13:03","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T02:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadpakistan.com.pk\/news\/?p=556531"},"modified":"2026-07-16T07:13:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T02:13:03","slug":"pide-calls-for-middle-east-recovery-mission-to-shift-pakistan-from-labour-export-to-contract-export","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leadpakistan.com.pk\/news\/pide-calls-for-middle-east-recovery-mission-to-shift-pakistan-from-labour-export-to-contract-export\/","title":{"rendered":"PIDE Calls for Middle East Recovery Mission to Shift Pakistan from labour export to contract export"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> ISLAMABAD<br \/>\nThe Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) has called for the immediate launch of a Middle East Recovery Mission to help Pakistan move beyond exporting workers and begin exporting contracts, services, goods and firm-level expertise.<br \/>\nIn its latest Policy Viewpoint, \u201cCapturing the Middle East Recovery: From Labour Export to Contract Export,\u201d authored by Dr Nasir Iqbal, Professor of Economics and Registrar, PIDE, the Institute argues that Pakistan\u2019s relationship with the Gulf remains economically important but structurally weak.<br \/>\nWhile the country benefits from remittances, energy supplies, deposits and diplomatic goodwill, it captures only a limited share of the commercial value generated through construction, logistics, engineering, healthcare, information technology and regional reconstruction. \u201cWe send workers; others get projects. We provide manpower; others provide systems.\u201d The report estimates that the Gulf\u2019s project and reconstruction landscape represents a market exceeding US$1.5 trillion this decade, including Saudi Vision 2030 projects and reconstruction requirements in Syria, Gaza and Lebanon. Pakistan, however, continues to earn mainly through workers\u2019 wages rather than through project margins, specialist subcontracts, supply chains and professional services.<br \/>\nDespite strong labour and remittance flows, Pakistan exported only US$3.79 billion worth of goods to GCC countries in FY2025, compared with imports of approximately US$17.9 billion. The study also notes that more than 762,000 Pakistani workers went abroad in 2025, but around 61 per cent were classified as unskilled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ISLAMABAD The Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) has called for the immediate launch of a Middle East Recovery Mission to help Pakistan move beyond exporting workers and begin exporting contracts, services, goods and firm-level expertise. In its latest Policy Viewpoint, \u201cCapturing the Middle East Recovery: From Labour Export to Contract Export,\u201d authored by Dr [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-556531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-business"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>PIDE Calls for Middle East Recovery Mission to Shift Pakistan from labour export to contract export<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/leadpakistan.com.pk\/news\/pide-calls-for-middle-east-recovery-mission-to-shift-pakistan-from-labour-export-to-contract-export\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PIDE Calls for Middle East Recovery Mission to Shift Pakistan from labour export to contract export\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ISLAMABAD The Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) has called for the immediate launch of a Middle East Recovery Mission to help Pakistan move beyond exporting workers and begin exporting contracts, services, goods and firm-level expertise. 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