Lithuanian Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas might visit the Philippines this year to further discuss his country’s need for more Filipino workers, his defense minister said.

The plan was divulged by Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovilė Šakalienė, who visited Manila last week.

“I'm also looking forward to seeing Prime Minister visit Philippines, hopefully by the end of this year, and also continue dialogue on this issue as well,” she said, referring to Lithuania’s hope to host more Filipino workers there.

The defense minister shared about her country’s need for “workers from other countries.”
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“We lack workforce in areas such as, for example, transportation, social care, medical care, and we know that Philippine citizens or Philippines, they have a wonderful reputation in Europe and in other countries for being highly skilled, competent, reliable,” she said, adding that Lithuania has an “aging society.”

She also took note of the Philippines being a Catholic society, whose people are “overwhelmingly English-speaking.”

Šakalienė stressed that being English speakers is “really important and very convenient for our society” because Lithuania has now an unprecedented number of Russian-speaking migrant workers, which is a concern for the country because of its testy relations with Russia.

“So, therefore, Catholic, non-radical, highly ethical, highly skilled, English-speaking Filipino workers seem like a very natural priority to us,” the defense minister said.

“And I am supportive of my colleagues who are already working regarding this issue, my colleagues from Social Affairs Ministry of Lithuania, colleagues from Migration Department, and the Internal Affairs Minister of Lithuania,” she added.