ISLAMABAD:A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) and Pakistan Freelancers Association (PAFLA) here on Saturday.
The MoU was coined with the aim to bridge policy research, policy advocacy, influencing gap to create an enabling environment for freelancing in Pakistan, a news release said.
The cooperation also aims to create awareness about the benefits and importance of freelancing and self-employment, bolster Pakistan’s freelancing exports by upskilling the freelancing community with particular focus on the country’s youth and women by skill trainings, awareness campaigns about policies and raising the issues faced by freelancers at policy fronts.
Under this MoU, SDPI and PAFLA will jointly organize seminars, webinars, training and policy dialogues for freelancers and policymakers.
Speaking on the occasion Deputy Executive Director (Research), SDPI, Dr Sajid Amin said that SDPI was well placed as an independent policy think-tank to conduct robust policy influencing. He added that engagement with the private sector enables SDPI to develop a comprehensive understanding of issues faced by stakeholders, identify policy gaps and build the capacity of both the private and public sector supplemented by evidence-based policy influencing.
Chairman, of PAFLA, Ibrahim Amin said that Pakistan was the third largest freelancing market with a reported annual size of Rupee 2 Billion, however, he added that only Rupees 700 million worth of freelancing export is documented.
He attributed the high undocumented exports to a lack of financial and regulatory literacy, low competitive skills and a general lack of awareness about freelancing in the country. He stressed that considering the population of youth, increasing internationally competitive freelancing skills, and creating a clear and conducive regulatory environment can exponentially increase documented freelancing exports and increase foreign remittances for economic growth.