TIRANA, April  24 /ATA/ – By Maela Marini/ Prime Minister Edi Rama on Monday called on businesses to join the government’s initiative to increase wages, while touting it as a crucial step for retaining the human capital in Albania.

In a meeting with business representatives in Durrës, Rama spoke about the shortage of human resources in many countries across Europe.

“We continue to reiterate the strong call for business to follow the example of the best and continue to raise wages because of the dire situation in the labor market. All the European countries are grappling with the repercussions of the aging population, sounding the alarm bell about the shortage of labor force. There are no longer as many young people in Germany as the German economy needs. This is the problem facing all the countries,” said Rama.

According to him, “the race to attract workers will be the race of every country.”

Germany has been planning for a long time to attract as many employees as possible, it needs 7 million by 2030,” said Rama.

The Prime Minister emphasized that “it is very important that we get all businesses on the same page. ”

“We cannot force our salary raise plan on business, but we can no longer accept to sit back and do nothing. We will not issue construction permits and award contracts  to construction companies that pay minimum wage to their employees,” he said.

Rama drew attention to the difficulties that the toll manufacturing industry will face in order to find labor force  unless they  increase wages and move on from basic work to a closed cycle “Made in Albania.”

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