DUSHANBE, January 9, 2009, Asia-Plus  --  A job vacancy fair scheduled for January 13 is expected to offer more than 13,000 jobs, according to State Agency for Employment, Migration and Social Protection (Agency) within the Ministry of Labor (MoL).

Speaking in the interview with Asia-Plus, the first deputy head of the Agency Anvar Boboyev said that the fair, staged by the Agency in cooperation with the Dushanbe Employment Center, would be held at the Youth-Cultural Center Oryono in Dushanbe.

According to him, 46,200 officially registered unemployed have been registered in the country to this date.  “Last year, we placed 25,220 people in jobs, while in all, 104,000 job vacancies were offered in 2008,” Boboyev said.

The Agency said that the fair aimed to mitigate effects of the possible mass return of Tajik labor migrants from the Russian Federation following a 50 percent reduction in quotas for foreign workers.