After the roundtable at BCCI: India is ready to sign an agreement to facilitate the import of employees into Bulgaria

The Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry hosted a roundtable discussion on the topic of "Untapped Opportunities for Importing Workforce", organised jointly with the India-Bulgaria Business Chamber. The meeting was attended by representatives of the executive, diplomats, business organisations, labour recruitment companies, employers and journalists.

The BCCI President Tsvetan Simeonov said that the great interest in the event showed the importance of the issue. He pointed out several options to cope with the lack of staff - the need for reforms in training and education, the introduction of innovations in production, etc. Simeonov shared that these are long-term solutions and the problem about the workforce is urgent and requires urgent measures. He stressed the fact that the business wants more determinate actions, as well as coordination on the part of the institutions when mitigating the conditions for importing labour. He gave an example for this with India, a country where the export of manpower is canalised and a database is created for the workforce sent abroad.

Deputy Minister of Economy and Industry David Sukalinski presented up-to-date data from the Employment Agency about the job vacancies in Bulgaria and said that this year, as in 2023, the nationally represented employer organisations are increasingly signalling that they are facing an acute shortage of skilled labour.

He reminded that on 1 April 2024, the government adopted the rules for putting into operation and using an automated information system, namely a platform for a procedure for issuing work and residence permits - the so-called "blue card". The developed information system will ensure the digitalisation of the processes, connected with issuing residence and work permits to foreigners in this country, and will reduce, administratively, the burden for all participants, Sukalinski said.

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

Dr Petar Velev, Chairman of the India-Bulgaria Business Chamber, stated that the topic of the workforce import is not just an important topic but a key one, since there is no industry, that does not need manpower, and gave an example of the lack of 4 000 nurses in our country.

Representatives of different industries, including building, information technologies, the military industry, textile, chemical industry, transport and logistics, pharmacy, etc., shared the difficulties they face in the process of importing manpower. They discussed the problem of the lack of sufficient number of employees in the consular offices of Bulgaria abroad to process the documents of the workers, applying for jobs, the hidden migration and the slow process of obtaining permits.

As a result of the roundtable, it was decided that, within short time limits, the Ministry of Economy and Industry will convene an interministerial working group to discuss the current problems and possible solutions to the problem about importing labour in the presence of representatives of the business.

BCCI will further give information about the agreements reached.