Scholz calls on German companies to hire Ukrainians more actively
MOSCOW. Oct 25 (Interfax) - Ukrainian refugees, including nearly a million of them who live and work in Germany, are an excellent opportunity for Germany companies that face workforce shortages, Ukrainian media said, citing German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's statement at the opening of the 6th German-Ukrainian Business Forum in Berlin on Tuesday.
"Take advantage of this enormous potential. Integrate the Ukrainians who are here with us into your companies. Even if these women and men return to Ukraine after the crisis, they will become a valuable asset to their companies, because they will then form human bridges with the country, which, being a candidate for EU membership, has enormous economic potential," Scholz said.
A large number of Ukrainian refugees are completing integration courses these weeks and months, many of them can now speak German, and almost all of them are well trained, he said.
"This is a guarantee that economic relations between Germany and Ukraine will develop even better and more dynamically in the future," he said.
The business forum brought together more than 500 participants, who want to learn about Ukraine's economic development during the crisis and the existing opportunities for cooperation and investment, according to the forum's organizers, which include the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK), the German Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations (OA) and the German-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AHK Ukraine).
"Regardless of the crisis, a dozen investment projects have already begun, and German companies are currently seeking investment guarantees from the federal government for another 30 projects. Reconstruction has begun and German companies have joined in," OA Deputy Chairman Christian Bruch said.
It has been reported that mutual trade between Ukraine and Germany increased by around 30% to 6.2 billion euros in January-August 2023. Imports to Germany again declined slightly by 5.5% to 1.8 billion euros, while exports grew by 52% to 4.4 billion euros.
A total of 4,155,600 non-EU citizens who left Ukraine after February 24, 2022 had temporary protection status in EU countries as of August 31, 2023, Ukrainian media said earlier, citing the European Union's Statistics Agency (Eurostat). Ukrainian citizens account for 98% of this number.
The main EU countries hosting beneficiaries of temporary protection from Ukraine as of late August were Germany (1 175 700 people; 28.3% of the total), Poland (960,550; 23%) and the Czech Republic (365,085; 9%), Eurostat said. These three countries accounted for 60.2% of the overall number. Over the past five months, the largest increases were recorded in Germany - by around 108,000 people in total - and by 39,800 people in the Czech Republic. Meanwhile, Poland saw a decrease in the number of people under temporary protection by 39,200 over these five months.
