After the round table at the BCCI: India is ready to sign agreement to begin the send of workers to Bulgaria

The Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry hosted a round table on "Untapped opportunities for labor import", organized jointly with the Indian-Bulgarian Business Chamber. The meeting was attended by representatives of the executive power, diplomats, business organizations, labor recruitment companies , employers, journalists.

The President of the Bulgaria Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Tsvetan Simeonov, said that the great interest in the event shows the importance of the problem. He highlighted several options for dealing with the lack of personnel - the need for reforms in training and education, introduction of innovations in production, etc. Simeonov shared that these are long-term solutions, and the labor problem is urgent and requires urgent measures. He emphasized the fact that business wants more decisive action and coordination from the institutions in easing the conditions for importing labor. He gave an example of this with India, a country where the export of personnel is channeled and has a built-up database of the personnel sent abroad.

The Deputy Minister of Economy and Industry David Sukalinski presented current data from the Employment Agency regarding vacancies in Bulgaria, saying that, as in 2023, the nationally represented employer organizations are increasingly signaling that they experience an acute shortage of qualified workers hand.

He reminded that on April 1, 2024, the government adopted the order for the commissioning and use of an automated information system, namely a production platform for issuing residence and work permits - the so-called "blue card". The developed information system will ensure digitization of the processes related to the issuance of residence and work permits to foreigners in the country and will reduce the administrative burden for all participants, said Sukalinski.

The Deputy Minister announced that in the field of labor migration, Bulgaria has signed agreements with four countries - Israel, Moldova, Armenia and Georgia, expressing confidence that such agreements help speed up the process of hiring labor and guarantee the predictability of the process.

The Chairman of the Indian-Bulgarian Business Chamber, Dr. Petar Velev, said that the topic of importing labor is not just important, but that it is key, since there is no industry that does not need personnel, and he gave an example of the lack of 4000 nurses in our country.

Representatives of various industries, including construction, information technology, military industry, textile, chemical industry, transport and logistics, pharmaceutical, etc. shared the difficulties they face in the process of importing staff. The problem with the lack of a sufficient number of employees in the consular offices of Bulgaria abroad to process the documents of the candidate workers, hidden migration and the slow process of obtaining permits was discussed.

As a result of the round table, it was decided that the Ministry of Economy and Industry should convene an interdepartmental working group in a short period of time to discuss current problems and possible solutions to the problem of importing labor in the presence of business representatives.

BCCI will inform further about the agreements reached.