Filipinos urged to explore Russian labor market

Filipinos are encouraged to explore the labor market in the Russian Federation especially highly skilled professionals in the medical and social services and the construction sector.

Evgeny Marchenko, St. Petersburg’s Russian Federation deputy for legislative assembly, said yesterday that Filipinos especially Cebuanos should start looking at opportunities in Russia specifically in St. Petersburg and start learning the Russian language.

Marchenko arrived in the country last July 30 and has met with local and national government officials including Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz and officials from the Technical Education Skills Development Authority (Tesda), Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), Professional Regulation Commission (PRC), Gov. Hilario Davide III and Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama.

“He has met with these officials to discuss about a project of sending Filipino professionals to work in Russia,” said Philippine Russian Business Assembly (PRBA) board of director Cesar Atienza.

The PRBA headed by Honorary Consul of Russia to the Visayas Armi Lopez-Garcia is partnering with the St. Petersburg Russian Federation for this pilot project.

Garcia said this project would involve sending an initial one thousand workers from Cebu to St. Petersburg during the first wave of the project’s implementation.

Garcia said the workers would be deployed once they would learn the

language.

Garcia said the workers could learn the language through the Russian Corner at the University of San Carlos where information on the Russian culture, language and other relevant information could be found.

Garcia added that Russian professors would hold two-month Russian language courses in one of Cebu’s schools.

She said they’re just waiting for these professors to arrive.

workers needed

Marchenko said there are a lot of job vacancies in medical and construction sectors in the Russian Federation since the far eastern area is on development mode.

“There are about 8,000 vacant places in medical sector and about 21,000 vacant places in the building sector,” he said.

He said he preferred Filipinos over other nationalities. Through research and personal experience, he found Filipinos as among the best workers in the world especially in the medical field.

He said he learned that Filipinos are described as highly qualified, possessing good personal traits and character.

Challenges

Marchenko however cited some challenges in the project that could be easily overcome with proper preparations.

“One is the international agreement between the two governments should be signed first before we can proceed,” he said.

Marchenko said he is very hopeful and optimistic given the positive feedback he got from the government officials he had met with.

Another challenge is learning the language which he believes the Filipinos can easily learn, he said.

“I was told that Filipino nurses were already sent to Japan and had learned the Japanese language very quickly. I suggest you start learning the language now.”

The level of education between Russia and the Philippines will need to be looked into also according to Marchenko.