President visits employment agency in Adjara

Mikheil Saakashvili recently visited the Adjara Employment Agency in Batumi. During the visit met with agency staff and spoke to them about the importance of the system. The president noted that the new agency will help reestablish a link between job-seekers and employers, which according to him, is a prerequisite for overcoming unemployment.

“Businessmen have already learned it and they employ people from the retraining center. A lot of people desire to study at the center, but there aren’t enough spots. This is why we have to create a primary testing system for the unemployed, a personal Facebook page for everybody as well as a relevant personal box at City Hall. As soon as a relevant vacancy comes up, we should connect the employer and job-seeker with each other. Several years ago we brought workers from abroad to Batumi; mainly from Turkey. We should no longer bring foreigners aside from the professions where we lack qualified cadres. The Chinese are working in Tbilisi. I understand that China has a lot of workers to export, but first we have our people to employ. We have to work a lot in this direction,” Saakashvili noted.

The President of Georgia also spoke about increasing the pension package and noted that next year all people over 60 years of age will receive a 100 USD pension package. However, according to him, employing people under the pension age and using their experience is also important.

According to the president’s statement, connecting such people to the employers is exactly what the agency is supposed to do.

Saakashvili offered a new initiative to the employment agency personnel; he advocates creating a Facebook page, so that those who have the desire will have access to the agency base electronically.

“Soon we will have computer knowledge spreading in our society and in every village, which we are creating not for playing but to have access to databases to employ people, sell products, and for people to realize their talent. This is just start however. We should use qualified specialists, for which we should constantly work more flexibly. It is easier to find a job at a construction site than it is to find a job as a lawyer or economist, but on the other hand, the creation of such projects employs people of these professions anyway. 12 people work at this agency. These people should employ 750 people within the next few days and this is the essence of the Ministry of Employment. This is why it is necessary for the state to get involved in this affair –the market alone will not be able to deal with this problem,” the president said.

Saakashvili also expressed interest in the registration process at the agency and spoke to job-seekers about Batumi’s educational potential.

“Batumi is becoming an education center of European importance. This is the first place in Eastern Europe where a full-scale American Technology University is being opened featuring academics with relevant professions and qualification in every faculty. Additionally, we are moving to a stage when the European Commission will open a European University here. The centers that are being opened in terms of education mean that Batumi is becoming a regional hub around Europe and the Black Sea. This is why I understand that we are looking for welders today, but we will definitely need mathematicians [in the future],” he added.

The applications of 5,840 people have already entered the Adjara employment agency as of today. 1,500 vacant positions within various professions are in the database of the agency.