Russia luring Filipino nurses, caregivers

CEBU, Philippines - The Russian government is inviting Filipino workers to work in their medical sector after being impressed by the Filipinos' quality of work.

Deputy Evgeny Marchenko of  the Legislative Assembly St. Petersburg, Russian Federation, said yesterday that there are 8,000 vacant places in the medical sector of St. Petersburg.

He added that they want Filipino nurses and caregivers to fill in these vacant places because they are impressed with the high quality of work that Filipinos have.

"For many years, I was researching about labor migration to Russia. I know all the advantages and disadvantages of our medicines and the result of all these researches, I decided to address it to the Philippines, to invite Filipino workers, to work for our Russian medicines and to work in our Russian hospitals as well," said Marchenko through an interpreter during a press conference at the Andalucia Room of Casino Español de Cebu.

Marchenko said they believe that the Filipino workers are the best in the world after seeing with his very own eyes how Filipino workers worked in the United States, Middle East and in other parts of the world.

"It was the best advertisement to your country. These Filipino workers are staff workers which I was interested to have for this labor migration project," Marchenko said.

This was the reason why when he met Consul Armi Lopez-Garcia, the Honorary Consul of the Russian Federation, during the APEC Summit, he talked with the latter about his research and discussed with her the possibility of labor migration to Russia.

Marchenko also talked with Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama and Cebu Governor Hilario Davide III yesterday. He said that Rama approved the project and is ready to take part in it while Davide also said that the province is interested in the project as well.

"I feel that the mayor and the governor are interested in this project. I think this project is going to work because we have all the basis and foundation for that," Marchenko said.

Marchenko also said they have invested a huge amount of money in this project and it will start soon with the agreement between St. Petersburg and Cebu.

Some of the difficulties that Marchenko saw in this project are that the two international agreements must be signed and the applicants for work must learn Russian and be acclimated to cold weather.

Consul Garcia assured that these agreements will be signed as the Philippine government will be doing its part for the realization of this project. She also said that the University of San Carlos may soon have Russian language courses.

The Governor of the Board of Investment Jerry Sta. Ana also offered the facilities of the University of Southern Philippines for Russian language courses.

Garcia said that they might be sending the first batch for this pilot project late this year or early next year as part of the requirement is being able to speak and understand Russian.

Caesar Atienza, the Philippine Russian Business Assembly board of directors, said that they will be organizing stakeholders in Cebu to send the best workers with high qualification standards to Russia.

Next to medical personnel, Marchenko hinted that they might be going for pilots from Cebu next.

To date, there are 2,000 Filipinos already working in Russia, according to Marchenko, and they want that with the project, Filipino workers who want to work in Russia will not have any problems.

"As long as there is a contract, there will be no problem. We want to ensure that we send the best well-prepared workers in Russia and assure them that they will be happy and that they will be the best ambassadors of the country," Garcia said. — /BRP (FREEMAN)