Schroeder for work permits to Indian IT experts

BERLIN, APRIL 16. The German Chancellor, Mr. Gerhard Schroeder, has been pulling all the stops to forge a national consensus on plans to issue 20,000 special ``green card'' work permits to computer experts from India and other non-EU countries even as a formal public campaign has been launched defending the controversial measure.

Government officials said that the work permits scheme would take effect by August 1 at the latest amid efforts by Mr. Schroeder's federal government to fight back the conservative critics who have attacked his scheme to issue U.S.-style green cards to software specialists urgently needed for Germany's budding information technology sector.

Full page advertisements placed in Berlin newspapers early this week proclaimed that the job growth was so strong in the IT sector that there weren't enough Germans to do that work. ``Until new experts have been trained, we need top experts from abroad to keep Germany competitive,'' the advertisements said.

Mr. Schroeder has said that between three and five additional jobs would be created as a result of the specialists' positions.

- PTI

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Section  : International
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