Representatives of Newfoundland-based Work Global Canada are in Uzbekistan in central Asia for the annual Tashkent International Labour Migration Forum.

President and CEO Paul Shelley, who previously attended the forum in 2022 and 2023, says Uzbekistan has a young, highly skilled, educated and mobile labour force.

He says for well over a decade the country has been providing very low, or free, tuition to skilled trades workers. He says Uzbekistan has a very young demographic and presents an opportunity to fill the country’s and the province’s need for skilled labour.

Shelley says workers from Uzbekistan previously met a number of barriers in coming to Canada, but some of those impediments are now being addressed.

“The work permitting time has been reduced significantly…and they’re opening a brand new consulate in Ottawa this summer, so those two things alone is going to increase the probability of people from Uzbekistan coming to Canada.”