Danas: Serbian Government Planning on Importing Workers from Guatemala, Bangladesh, Vietnam

Construction Workers (BETAPHOTO/MILE GVOZDENOVIC/MG)

The Serbian Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veterans' and Social Issues is in the process of reaching an agreement with Bangladesh, Vietnam and Guatemala that will facilitate the arrival of workers from these countries in Serbia, the June 30 edition of the Danas newspaper reported.

The subject was discussed last week at an inter-ministerial meeting where, among other things, Foreign Minister Nikola Selakovic asked the Ministry of Labor for a list of areas where Serbia needed workers.

Bangladesh, with a population of over 160 million people and Vietnam with almost 100 million could be an inexhaustible source of labor for Serbia, but the question is under which conditions. What is certain is that this is a good thing for employers. Nebojsa Atanackovic from the Union of Employers of Serbia explained that increasing the offer in the labor market suited employers.

"If there are not enough people to employ this disrupts the economy, but that raises the cost of labor. Our economy cannot pay as much as Western Europe does. Our companies are not at the level where they can be productive with expensive labor," Atanackovic said and added that when people from Serbia went to Western Europe then someone needed to replace them, and that in this way companies could hire workers at more favorable prices.