dpa
New Delhi
Chancellor Olaf Scholz wants to significantly expand the immigration of skilled workers from India to Germany, especially in the IT sector, he said on the second day of his inaugural visit to the subcontinent.
“We want to simplify the issuing of visas,” Scholz said during a visit to India’s Silicon Valley in Bengaluru on Sunday. “We intend to modernize the whole bureaucratic process in addition to legal modernization.” While Germany urgently needs skilled workers, India partly lacks jobs for its large young population. According to the plans, it should become easier for skilled workers needed in Germany to come to the country with their families, Scholz said. This should also be possible, initially, without a concrete job offer.
He also addressed the fact that sought-after skilled workers from India more often speak English than German, making Canada, for example, an easier place to migrate to.
“It is clear that anyone who comes to Germany as an IT specialist can first easily converse with all his or her colleagues in English, because many in Germany can speak English,” Scholz said. German can be learned later, he added.
Last year, the German embassy in New Delhi said it issued visas to some 2,500 to 3,000 skilled workers, among them IT specialists in particular. This year, they expect a significant increase in the number of specialist visas issued.
Around 1,800 German companies are active in India. Scholz, who is accompanied by business representatives on his trip, was scheduled to visit companies in the region including a site operated by the German software company SAP in Bengaluru.
Scholz also wants to exchange views with skilled workers who are about to leave for Germany.
Scholz is also expected to discuss energy cooperation and the joint fight against climate change. To this end, he plans to visit the Indian company Sun Mobility, which produces batteries for electric vehicles. The German company Bosch holds about 25% of the shares in the company.
India ranks fourth in terms of greenhouse gas emissions - after the United States, China and the European Union. Per capita, however, a person in India consumes much less energy than a German. Many people in India still do not have access to electricity, and in some areas only to limited amounts. To meet the country’s growing electricity needs, India is increasingly relying on renewable energies in its electricity mix - but also on more coal and more oil imports from Russia.
Finally, later on Sunday, the last day of Scholz’s trip, a meeting with an Indian cricket team is on the agenda. The sport is about as important in the former British colony as football is in Germany.
