NAVTTC Chairperson Gulmina Bilal Ahmad met with Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Nasir Mansoor Qureshi, a delegation of overseas promoters, and ICCI officials to discuss obstacles to manpower export and to agree on closer coordination to improve skills training and streamline approval processes for workers heading abroad.
The meeting at ICCI included Naveen representatives from NAVTTC—Gulmina Bilal Ahmad, Director NSIS Suleman Mirza, and Takamol’s Zeeshan Ali—alongside a delegation of overseas promoters led by Faheem Iqbal, chairman of the Pakistan Overseas Employment Promoters Association, and Umar Hannan Qureshi, convener of ICCI’s Export of Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis Committee. ICCI President Nasir Mansoor Qureshi and several chamber members attended the session.
Gulmina Bilal Ahmad outlined NAVTTC’s recent initiatives to equip young people with market-relevant technical skills and to promote women’s participation in trades traditionally dominated by men. She said the Prime Minister’s strong support for the national skilling agenda has accelerated these efforts and broadened their reach across the country.
She also described NAVTTC’s collaboration with Takamol to ensure Pakistani workers meet international employment standards, noting mandatory skill verification tests are conducted at approved centers in Pakistan to satisfy Saudi Arabia’s hiring requirements. NAVTTC frames these measures as part of a broader effort to align training and certification with global labor market expectations.
Representatives of overseas promoters raised several operational concerns, citing delays in approvals, burdensome procedures, and a specific request to abolish NAVTTC’s trade test requirement for loaders and unloaders. They urged regulatory reforms to reduce bottlenecks and improve the ease of exporting manpower.
ICCI President Nasir Mansoor Qureshi praised NAVTTC’s role in transforming the technical and vocational training sector and emphasized the importance of collaboration between training authorities and the business community. He offered ICCI’s full support for joint training programs, awareness sessions, and workshops aimed at increasing youth employment, empowering women, and facilitating labor mobility to markets such as Saudi Arabia and China.
The meeting ended with a commitment to strengthen coordination between NAVTTC and ICCI to streamline processes, address promoters’ concerns, and better prepare Pakistan’s workforce for overseas employment. Other participants included Abdul Rehman Qureshi, Muhammad Talha, Noor Fatima Alvi, Saeed Khan, Zia Qureshi and Zanab Khan.
