20% quota set for overseas Pakistanis in trade missions

New policy targets merit-based selection of officers, market diversification

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has approved the reservation of 20% quota for overseas Pakistanis for appointment on the post of trade officers in Pakistan’s missions abroad.

The decision was taken in a meeting held at the Prime Minister’s Office which discussed reforms in the process of posting trade officers abroad. Earlier, the prime minister had directed the Ministry of Commerce to revamp the entire system of posting trade officers in overseas trade missions in order to promote trade and commercial interests of the country.

A new policy, approved by the premier, targets transparent and merit-based selection of trade officers, market diversification, involvement of Pakistani diaspora, rationalising expenditures, broad-based monitoring and performance evaluation and automation of processes.



In an attempt to effectively promote commercial interests of the country, especially in emerging markets and various regions across the globe, trade clusters have been given due attention in the new policy to ensure optimum utilisation and maximum mission outreach.

The prime minister was told that in order to ensure broad-based and real-time monitoring of the performance of trade officers, the entire evaluation process had been automated. Commerce Secretary Mohammad Younus Dagha briefed the prime minister about the national trade data analytics system, being developed by the commerce ministry. The data analytics system will help in better evaluation and promotion of trade interests.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 6^th, 2019.

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