BAKU, September 7 (RIA Novosti, Gerai Dadashev) - Demographic forecasts say the Russian population will decline by two million, or 1.4% by 2007 as compared with the figure in 2004, an official in the Ministry of Public Health and Social Development said Wednesday.
Speaking at a conference on migration in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, Tatyana Savitskaya said: "Russia will have to accept more than a million migrants a year to make up for the steady and fast decline in its population."
She said Russia had adopted a concept to regulate migration, a concept on the labor market policy, and a program on social support for migrant workers.
Savitskaya said that the number of migrant workers in Russia had increased from 2.01 million people in 2000 to 3.08 million in 2003, or by 1.8 times. They are mostly engaged in the construction sector (41%), in trade and public catering (about 22%), industry (over 12%), agriculture (5%), and transport (about 5%).
