Czech Government may expand the quota of Ukrainian workers up to 40,000 persons

“Current annual capacity is 21,000 persons. The Czech Government is considering expanding the quota to 40,000 persons annually, however no final decision has been made yet,” Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Tomáš Petříček said in an interview with Ukrinform.

The minister called the facilitation program, which allow applicants from Ukraine to apply for employment residency permits (so called labour cards), “unique and highly successful.”

“Thanks to continuing economic growth the Czech Republic labour market has a high demand for skilled workers, which is not possible to satisfy from domestic resources. This opens a possibility for Ukrainian workers, who are considered as skilled and hardworking, to obtain new work experience from various (usually high tech) companies in the Czech Republic, which can be later used in Ukraine,” the Czech Foreign Minister said.

He noted that last year the trade turnover between the two countries had increased by more than 15 percent. “Some investors are discovering the Ukrainian market as an alternative to the Russian one from which they decided to leave. In my opinion, we can expect the presence of Czech business in Ukraine to be more significant in next years,” Petříček noted.