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Walk the red carpet in Germany...

M. Ramesh

FRANKFURT, Dec. 8

WHEN Deepak Bhatt arrived in the Frankfurt airport on August 8 this year, he expected to find a representative of his new employer, Flatfox at the airport.

The representative was there holding up a name card. But also waiting at the airport for Deepak was a horde of reporters and photographers, who besieged him the moment he identified himself to the Flatfox representative.

As Bhatt stood there, blinking and bewildered, he was told that the attention he was receiving from the press was because he was the first recipient of the Green Card, under the German government's new scheme, which opened on August 1, to give work permi ts to 20,000 foreign software professionals.

``First Indian expert arrives in Frankfurt'', some newspapers wrote the next day, of the 25-year old computer science graduate from the Pune University.

The welcome that Bhatt received speaks volumes about the story of German economy's hunger for IT professionals. It is estimated that in 1998, about 1.7 million people were employed in the German IT industry, which was 5.6 per cent more than two years ear lier.

Estimates of the number of IT jobs that remain unfilled vary between 70,000 and 100,000. Industry and official sources say that jobs getting filled in would only open up more jobs, because companies would be able to get more contracts for software develo pment.

To attract talent for filling these posts, Germany has to compete with not only the US in the main, but also other countries. By and large, there is a general perception in Germany that the 20,000-visa scheme has not been a great success.

It is understood that there were around 28,000 applications, mostly from Indians, which does not reflect a great enthusiasm for working in Germany.

A survey conducted by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the State of Baden Wuerttemberg, showed that in that part of the State comprising Stuttgart and its neighbourhood alone, there was a need for around 5,000 software professionals.

According to Mr. Martin Priebe of the chamber, till the middle of November, only around 1,300 posts had been filled in. ``We will have to see how to better the visa scheme'', he told Business Line.

But what is the problem in getting people here? Language, for one. Bhatt says that although colleagues are friendly, it is sort of strange to work with people with whom you cannot even converse.

There is another problem, though, a more significant one. Taxes are very high. Says Bhatt: ``They are giving me (the remuneration) what they had committed, but I did not know that half of it would go away as taxes''.

Yet another hurdle for Germany, particularly in getting Indian professionals, is the fact that US is perceived to be more attractive.

However, it is quite clear that things will change for the better, if only because Germany requires software professionals, and urgently. The German Government is seized of the matter.

Bhatt says he had been approached by some government officials and even politicians, who wanted to know if he was comfortable in Germany as also his views on how the Green Card scheme could be made better.

While IT is one area where people are needed urgently, there are several other sectors where this country needs manpower. Engineers, teachers, media professionals - are required in large numbers here.

IT is what the government is testing the waters with. If foreigners working in this sector click, maybe other areas could be opened up too. Who knows?