In an effort to diversify Saudi Arabia's oil-dependent economy, Pakistan has asked Saudi Arabia to hire more of its nationals, expressing its willingness to provide more than one million employees annually.

In recent talks between Pakistan's Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Jawad Soharb Malik and Saudi Ambassador to Islamabad Nawaf Al Malki, the request was at the center.

A Pakistani official said he had a "cordial" meeting with the Saudi envoy on Saturday and told him about Pakistan's capacity to provide over 1 million skilled workers each year.

"The Saudi Vision 2030 requires millions of expatriate workers," Soharb said on X platform. Currently, about 500,000 Pakistanis travel to Saudi Arabia each year. There is a real prospect of this figure rising to over 1 million,” he wrote.

A bilateral agreement with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will be initiated soon."

Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Human Resources reported in May that 2.64 million Pakistanis work there. The figure includes 1.3 million workers in the Saudi private sector, the ministry added.

The same statistics estimate that there are 2.2 million Pakistani men working in the kingdom. Pakistani domestic workers in Saudi Arabia include 963,000 males and nearly 52,000 females.

According to estimates, there are about 1.5 million Pakistani workers in the kingdom as of 2020.

Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have enjoyed flourishing relations in recent months.

After taking office, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif visited Saudi Arabia for the first time last April.

Saudi Arabia extended the term of a $3 billion deposit it made to Pakistan's foreign reserves in December. The money was deposited in Pakistan’s central bank in 2021 as a loan to shore up the country’s economy.