The problem of workforce is pressing and is invoked by most of the investors that want to start businesses in Moldova, said the deputy director general of the Investment Agency Ion Iordachi. According to him, the authorities intend to have discussions with the Uzbek side on the liberalization of the labor market for students from Uzbekistan, IPN reports.
The official noted that for Moldova to increase its attractiveness from investment viewpoint, it should urgently solve the problem of labor force. Ion Iordachi said that Uzbekistan is a country that annually generates a large number of students and a part of them can be attracted to study and work in Moldova.
“We must find solutions to the problem of shortage of labor force. We should also bring workforce from outside the country, surely in a legal way. There are sectors that need workforce, including unskilled workers. Earlier, the Investment Agency proposed that the bilateral Moldovan-Uzbek commission that is headed by Deputy Premier Vladimir Bolea should consider the attraction of students as one of the items of its agenda in 2024. This country has 800,000 students each year and, respectively, Uzbekistan cannot absorb this number. They traditionally went to Kyiv. We can be the next destination if we work on this. The University of Medicine and ULIM already have students from this country and these students accommodate easily,” Ion Iordachi stated in an interview for RliveTV channel.
Earlier, the Ministry of Economic Development and Digitization proposed liberalizing the labor market for the citizens of the EU and also for those of Albania, the U.S., Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Switzerland, Georgia, the UK, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine, Iceland, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Liechtenstein. The goal of the initiative is to facilitate the foreigners’ access to the Moldovan labor market.
“We have a society that doesn’t easily accept foreigners. We don’t speak about 100,000 people who want to come to study and to eventually remain as workforce, but it is a plus to open negotiations and to start to attract them. The Government decided to liberalize the process with the EU states, Ukraine, Georgia, the U.S., Canada and other states, but society should be ready for the next step. We will soon realize that we need labor force. A part of the foreign students studying here can be motivated to work in the country,” said the deputy director general of the Investment Agency.
Under the Ministry of Economic Development and Digitization’s initiative to liberalize the market, the highest permitted number of working hours for foreign students will be raised from 10 to 30 hours a week. The foreign students will be able to work according to a longer program only if they have a temporary residence permit for studies.
