YEREVAN, APRIL 28, ARMENPRESS. Armenia’s Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Narek Mkrtchyan says that during his recent visit to India a number of agreements were reached to boost the cooperation in employment and social protection sector.

During a press conference in Armenpress today, the minister said this is the first experience of such a level of dialogue.

“India is a very important country for Armenia in the context of mutli-sectoral cooperation. In this respect I would like to note that the visit was quite productive and was full of agreements reached. Working groups have already been formed to deal with the implementation of these agreements”, he said.

He particularly highlighted the meeting with the executives of Skill India large state corporation. The corporation is cooperating with different business associations, major companies and is engaged in development of human skills, trainings. It also has active relations with educational institutions, business organizations, clarifies priority areas and what kind of specialists are needed. It trains 60 million people annually. Minister Mkrtchyan informed that a memorandum has been signed with the corporation’s leadership on introducing such an institute in Armenia.

“India’s experience in training a large number of people, making them competitive in the labor market is very important for us. Today we re-assess our employment programs in order to make them more targeted. And studying the successful international experience is very important here. India has quite a successful experience in this respect. If we manage to introduce such a system in Armenia, we will be able to offer new paths for development of skills to our citizens”, the minister said.

Mkrtchyan informed that he had a productive meeting also with the Indian Minister of Labor, Employment and Environment, and they agreed to sign agreements in a number of directions. A working group has already been formed to deal with pushing forward these activities. “We will start these activities next week. One of the directions relates to the discussions over an organized labor migration. As you know, a labor force from India is attracted to Armenia’s different areas. We are planning to put this movement on legal relations, provide legal consulting, formalize everything that is informal and give an opportunity for training”, he said.

The next direction, he said, is the field of social protection and working relations, which is again developed in India. Narek Mkrtchyan said India is among those unique countries that granted people working remotely a status by including them in the social protection system. “This is also important for Armenia. A process of exchange of experience will start in this direction”, he added.