The Government allocated 4.5 million dollar fund to promote employment. 1 million dollars of this fund go to Fier and Vlorë, with priority to the residents of flooded areas. Besides the recovery of damages caused by floods, this is another measure to support the residents of these areas.
The announcement was made by Prime Minister Edi Rama, accompanied by the Minister of Social Welfare Erion Veliaj, during a visit to a toll manufacturing plant in Fier, which in 2014 benefited a fund from the government to promote employment. Thanks to this fund, this Albanian venture has hired 70 new employees.
“The reason we stopped here is, among other things, the fact that in flooded areas we have also offered a special fund for the promotion of employment. It is made available to businesses to boost employment and it is made available to those who seek employment, in order to work and to live by honest work. This is our approach, which enables us not only to see how we can make it when crazy weather challenges us, but also what to do when the sun comes up and when we have to think of how dealing successfully not only with damages directly caused by the weather, but also with injuries that require an ongoing treatment over time”- the Prime Minister said.
The employment promotion fund consists of six different programs, which support the creation of new jobs by subsidizing employers through payment of social insurance for a year and four salaries for each employee hired. For this year, – the Prime Minister noted, – the aim is to double the figure of applicants, from 361 thousand subjects of last year to 700 thousand, in order to achieve 7 thousand employees only from this fund. “Only in one year, 2014, we distributed an employment incentive fund for 361 subjects who have applied and in fact, only from this employment fund, 4 thousand jobseekers have been employed and been erased from the list of unemployed. For this year, the available find is twice the fund of last year, and employment promotion programs will be implemented intensively. If these programs exhaust successfully and in a fast time all the funds that we have made available, we will make available other funds.”
Minister of Social Welfare and Youth, Erion Veliaj announced that the fund for Fier and Vlora is as much as 20% of the overall fund for the promotion of employment. “In both districts of Fier and Vlora affected by floods the fund is over 1 million dollars, practically over the 20% throughout Albania in these two areas”, Minister Veliaj said. In addition, he invited businesses to consider employing mostly residents from flooded areas.
Of the 4.5 million dollar fund to promote employment will be benefited by companies that hire workers from different categories, especially women, young people, persons with disabilities, as well as citizens of Roma and Egyptian communities.
