Daily Times

Abu Dhabi Dialogue (ADD) is a forum that brings together global and regional intelligentsia from 18 countries to debate on critical issues and generate ideas for the development of a comprehensive and practical regional framework for contractual labor mobility. Pakistan has been awarded the Chairmanship of Abu Dhabi Dialogue (ADD) for the 2022-2023 cycle, said a press release received here on Tuesday. Under Pakistan’s Chair, an online meeting of Senior Officials of the Abu Dhabi Dialogue was held on October 18. Welcoming the participants, Federal Secretary for Overseas Pakistani and Human Resource Development, Zulfiqar Haider said that bringing together both the countries of origin and countries of destination to ensure the facilitation of safe, orderly, and regular migration of temporary workers.

He stated that Abu Dhabi Dialogue has provided us a platform to carry out extensive research for addressing various issues related to labour migration due to which we have a better understanding of such issues today. He further emphasized that though a lot of commendable work has been done on the level of policy proposals, there is a need to focus now on the implementation of these proposals at the governmental level to achieve the desired results.

Haider elaborated that the Abu Dhabi Dialogue has currently a focus on four key priority themes: 1) Leveraging technology to strengthen Member States’ capacity for labor market administration and promoting migrant workers’ welfare; 2) Facilitating and enhancing skills mobility between and among countries of origin and destination in response to the future of work; 3) Integrating a focus on gender equality into the recruitment promotion policies of the ADD Member States; and 4) Fostering international and regional cooperation between the Abu Dhabi Dialogue and other labor and migration-related fora, for better governance of labor migration in ADD corridors.

Concluding the session, the Federal Secretary stated that Pakistan is closely working with the members of the Abu Dhabi Dialogue through the active support of ADD Secretariat and intends to streamline the safe and regular movement of migrant workers in the region by adopting best global practices in the best interests of both the countries of origin and destination.