00:00We do need workers from other countries because Lithuania is an aging society.
00:07We lack workforce in areas such as, for example, transportation, social care, medical care.
00:14And we know that citizens of Philippines, they have a wonderful reputation in Europe and in other countries
00:23for being highly skilled, competent, reliable, and also Philippine society is Catholic.
00:32And people are overwhelmingly English-speaking, which is really important and very convenient for our society
00:41because, regretfully, Lithuania for the first time has such an unprecedented number of Russian-speaking migrant workers,
00:51which is a concern of national security for us because of their vulnerability due to relations to Russia or Belarus
01:03and unprecedented proactive action by special services of Russia and Belarus.
01:12So, therefore, Catholic, non-radical, highly ethical, highly skilled, English-speaking Filipino workers seem like a very natural priority to us.
01:24And I am supportive of my colleagues who are already working regarding this issue.
01:29How many Filipino workers I'd like to have in Lithuania?
01:33I would like to leave that number for the later, probably even higher-level visits to deliver.
01:41But my hope is to have a change from the current 220,000 Russian-speaking migrant workers from post-Soviet states
01:54to quite a large part of that number, I hope, could be from the Philippines.
02:03I wouldn't like now to specify the numbers.
02:06But also, this is also related very closely to, as I said, joint values as, for example, religion,
02:20because Lithuania is very homogenous in the religious sense.
02:24We are a very dominantly Catholic society, just like the Philippines.
02:28So I think that is a big connection.
02:30What I have also learned through the conversations that I had with my colleagues from the Philippines
02:37and several informal conversations, family is the main value here in the Philippines.
02:42Just like in Lithuania, family is exceptionally important.
02:45I think that also it gives quite a possibility of connection on the societal level.
02:51Then, language.
02:52People that are younger than 45 years, they don't speak Russian.
02:56They barely, well, most of them don't even understand Russian.
03:00Because 35 years ago, when we broke free from Russian occupation,
03:05there was no more mandatory requirement in schools to learn Russian language as the first foreign language.
03:11So, well, nobody speaks it.
03:13So, therefore, when we have people from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, and et cetera,
03:23who don't speak English, then it's quite a problem, especially in the service sector.
03:28One more area that I can cover, again broadly, is what I have seen from my terms in National Security and Defense Committee.
03:38I'm a member of the Parliament as well, and this is my third term in National Security and Defense Committee,
03:44and we have organized several joint discussions with the Committee of Foreign Affairs.
03:48So, we have discussed certain areas that are quite critically dependent on the influx of migrant workers.
03:56So, for example, transportation sector.
03:59We now have, I think, over 50,000, probably up to 60,000 migrant workers from Belarus,
04:11and most of them work in the transportation sector.
04:15So, there, I think that it could be great to have long-distance English-speaking Filipino drivers.
04:23I think that would be one area.
04:25Another area, you are famous for your sailors, for your maritime industry-related skills.
04:33So, therefore, shipyard workers, sailors would be one more area which is important.
04:38And national security-wise, it's a very sensitive area.
04:41We are expanding our defense industry.
04:43We are expanding our shipyards.
04:45Civil industry is also participating in the expansion of defense industry.
04:50So, therefore, having skilled citizens of Philippines that would be willing to work here,
04:59that would also be one area that I would be, as defense minister, looking forward to.
05:05And, in general, of course, as aging society, we have this need of social care, medical care workers.
05:13So, from nurse assistants to nurses to other professions that are related to that,
05:19that also would be something to very seriously discuss, because the need is there.
05:26And then other details, of course, should be discussed by my colleagues,
05:31as currently, for example, joint communique between Minister of Social Security and Labour of Lithuania
05:38and the Department of Migrant Workers of Philippines is currently being discussed and prepared,
05:44and hopefully it will be finalized soon and hopefully document can be signed also as soon as possible.
05:52And our Migration Department under the Ministry of Interior is now in contact with your Migrant Workers Department
06:00and also working on how to move forward.
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