June 19 (SeeNews) - Croatia is increasing its quotas for hiring foreign workers in tourism and construction to avert a labour shortage during the summer season, prime minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Wednesday.
"In order to avoid any disturbances to the quality of services, especially in the municipalities on the coast, we will adopt today a decision that will grow the quotas for the tourism sector by 2,000 work permits with an option, in case this quota gets exhausted, to increase the number by an additional 1,000 automatically, without any further government decisions," Plenkovic said during a regular cabinet meeting, according to a video file uploaded on the government's website.
Plenkovic said that according to both the labour and tourism ministries, the newly approved quotas should meet the current needs.
He said that the government is also increasing the foreign workers quota in the construction sector by 1,000 work permits with an option to add a further 1,000, if needed.
Last week, the Croatian Employers' Association (HUP) and the Croatian Tourism Association (HUT) urged the government in a joint statement to urgently increase the quotas for foreign workers in order to help the tourism sector prepare adequately for an expected rise in the number of visitors in summer.
Tourism is a key driver for the Adriatic state's economy, contributing some 20% of GDP.
In December, the government raised the total quota for foreign workers to 65,100 in 2019 from 38,769 in 2018, in an attempt to make up for shortages of skilled domestic workers, mostly in construction and tourism.