There Is No One to Build Roads in Moldova. The Government Discussed Working Visa Facilitation for Foreigners

In 2019, Moldova facilitated the procedure for obtaining work visas for foreigners. In particular, they reduced the time for documents consideration, and also canceled the need to receive an invitation to apply for a visa. Despite this, companies complain of a shortage of workers, especially right before the start of road construction in the country. Prime Minister Ion Chicu convened a meeting of branch departments on February 4. It was noted during the meeting that the shortage of skilled labor will become more acute when the repair and construction of roads scheduled for 2020 begin. Companies intend to attract foreigners to the construction; therefore they addressed the government with a request to simplify the issuance of work visas to foreigners. As the head of the Bureau of Migration and Asylum, Olga Poalelungi, noted that amendments were made in the Moldovan legislation on labor migration in 2018, which entered into force in 2019. Thus, the list of countries whose citizens do not need to receive invitations to work in Moldova was expanded. The time for considering documents required to issue work visas has decreased almost three times, now this procedure takes up to 30-40 days and not 90, as it was before. Poalelungi also said that the labor contract stipulated that the wage of a foreigner should not be less than the average wage in the economy. Chicu asked the heads of branch institutions and departments to further simplify the issuance of work visas and reduce the processing time of documents, but taking into account the security of the domestic labor market. Recall, the Ministry of Economy announced large-scale plans for the construction of roads in Moldova. Over the next few years, it is planned to repair and build over 350 km of roads and spend almost 6 billion lei on this. However, the work is going to be implemented at the expense of the Russian loan, which has not been even approved yet. The Minister of Economy and Infrastructure Anatoly Usaty announced plans for the construction of roads on January 24 at a press conference. According to him, the government has already announced tenders for the repair of 184.3 km of roads with a total value of 2.3 billion lei. Among the open projects, the repair of the Balti - Floresti road (704 million lei), Floresti - Singerei road (150 million lei) and the 9 km-long bypass road around Chisinau (410 million lei).