Deputy Prime Minister Dumitru Alaiba has announced a new labor market liberalization stage. Following the simplification of the procedure for obtaining the right to work for citizens of the European Union member states, the Minister of Economic Development and Digitalization said that the labor market will be now liberalized for citizens of Turkey, Armenia, Ukraine, Georgia, and the Balkan countries. According to the official, the initiative is designed to solve the pressing labor shortage problem faced by all sectors of the economy, IPN reports.

The first stage of the labor market liberalization process will offer the citizens of the 27 EU member states the possibility of working in the Republic of Moldova without being obliged to hold a valid work permit. Deputy Premier Alaiba said that this way the state encourages the coming of highly qualified workforce to Moldova.

“What we are doing is opening Moldova not only to unskilled workforce, but also to talents, to competent managers. This is very important. When an investor opens a company here and needs a manager this wants to bring from Romania, Germany or Italy, their journey does not have to start with applying for a work permit,” Dumitru Alaiba stated in the program “Resumé” on RliveTV channel.

According to the minister, in order to provide the sectors of the economy with labor force, the employment procedure will be simplified for citizens of Turkey, Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine, and the Balkan states.

“The abolition of work permits for EU citizens will be followed by the next openness wave. This means that we are preparing the liberalization of the labor market for citizens of the Balkan countries, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, and Turkey. From the North to the South, from small to large, everyone says they are short of workforce. To have a growing GDP, we need more people to work for Moldovan companies, either here or remotely, but to work for Moldovan companies to produce value for our companies,” said the Minister of Economic Development and Digitalization.

The liberalization of the labor market also provides for the simplification of the procedure for hiring foreign students in the Republic of Moldova. Hence, the limit of working hours for foreign students was increased from 10 hours per week to 30 hours per week or 1,565 hours per year.