He introduced a bill in the Parliament on Monday, seeking to modify the Romanian citizenship law, so the areas with a significant shortage of labor can go look for people abroad to fill their openings.
“The idea of this bill came from the fact that we have a very high shortage of candidates in the IT sector, which we cannot fill with domestic resources. If we do not meet the market needs, we risk seeing two things happen: one a significant rise in salaries and a significant shrinking of the industry or many candidates being accepted into the industry without the necessary education in the field, which will lead to a decline in the quality of products and services developed,” Pambuccian said.
If this bill passes, foreign citizens who got an IT degree in Romania or abroad will be able to receive Romanian citizenship more easily if they take a job in an area of this country affected by the shortage of skills that local resources cannot cover. They should get a reduction of the five-year required residence to get Romanian citizenship to two years.
“We must become a magnet for foreign specialists, who should come to work under non-fixed term employment contracts in those sectors experiencing a shortage. The US has been doing it for a long time. The expats in Romania today usually come for fixed-term management positions. This is not the category of foreigners we are looking at, but those who should come to fill non-management specialized positions for which there are no local candidates,” Pambuccian said.
Some of the employers in the local services industry say this bill to modify the citizenship law is good, but not enough, because the process to secure work permits needs to become simpler, as well.
“I’m in the process of hiring two Moldovans I recruited directly from the Republic of Moldova, who were not living in Romania. The process is very difficult, we’ve been trying to get them their work permits in Romania for three or four months now,” said Bogdan Tudor, founder and chief executive of Class IT Outsourcing, a local IT services provider.
“The labor market in Romania needs more IT specialists and it’s a good solution to get them from, say, the Republic of Moldova, but the labor legislation, too, not only the citizenship law, needs some amendments.”
Things are easier when it comes to hiring skilled people from EU countries. One such example of Indian-owned outsourcing service provider Wipro Technologies, who is currently employing more than 30 people from Poland or Finland on key positions for which the company could not find suitable Romanian candidates.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)