KHUJAND, August 6, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- The northern Sughd province is currently counting how many foreign labor migrants it will need next year in order to determine the quota for labor migrants for 2009, Renat Atabiyev, deputy head of the Sughd agency for employment, migration and social protection of the population, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.  

According to him, the government is currently determining the quota for foreign labor migrants to work in Tajikistan in 2009.  “In this connection, our agency has applied to all enterprises and organizations in the province that are going to enlist the services of foreigners,” said Atabiyev, “We should inform the government how many workers will come, from what country and in what sector they will work.”

The agency should collect all the information and send it to the government before August 15, he said. 

“For the first time, the quote for foreign labor migrants was determined in 2007 and 7,500 foreign workers were allowed to work in the region,” said Atabiyev.  “This year, we have not worked on determining the quota because the ministry dealing because the ministry dealing with this issue was restructured.”