romaniaIT

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Eastern European countries continue to be an attractive region for foreign direct investment. However, Romania distinguishes itself by truly fulfilling the criteria necessary to create the ideal investment opportunity.

Why Romania?

Romania is the second largest Central European country taking into account its economic potential, the market size, and the number of inhabitants. Romania has recently made considerable legislative and economic progress. With the introduction of the 16% unique taxation rate on profit, 70% of economic activity now in private hands, advanced price liberalization, an open foreign trade regime, and significant and ongoing improvements in the opening of key markets such as energy and infrastructure, the sector is poised for IT investors and partnerships. Romania also continues to improve legislation in the area of corporate governance, for example, by introducing new mandatory voting requirements for publicly held companies.

Building on an excellent academic environment that produces a constant output of qualified engineers, doubled by superb language skills, Romania enjoys a growing reputation as a technologically savvy environment. This, coupled with Romania's productivity, creativity, and competitive costs, position the sector to tackle unique business requirements among a broad range of industries.

Romania is one of the strongest markets in Europe for technology investment and trade, with a highly skilled technology workforce, competitive costs, top-tier investors, and a friendly business environment. Romania's IT sector is really at its tipping point in terms of international recognition and business development - particularly throughout the European Union (EU). The IT sector is growing at a manageable rate, which is primarily due to the quality and skill of the IT workforce - a value-added proposition not found in any of the other emerging market economies.

The software and services sector continues to be the most dynamic within the IT industry, with an estimated turnover growth rate of 35% in 2006 compared to 2005 (USD calculation). Estimates at the beginning of last year showed a 20-to-30% growth rate, which is significantly bigger than the average growth rate of the economy - 17%.

The study published in December 2006 by ITC- Institute for Computers predicts EUR 1,61 bn turnover for software and services. Growing demand on the internal market, both in public and private sectors, and the exports growth, especially for services, are the drivers for this development.

Estimates also show that in 2006 software and services exports will surpass EUR 400 million compared to approximately EUR 280 million in 2005. This is equivalent to a 40% growth rate.

Romania's dedicated, creative, and motivated staff drives the Information, Communications, and Technology sector. Spanning from video game creation to anti-virus protection, Romanian technical experts and engineers strive for excellence. Leveraging their multicultural and multilingual skills, they are able to tackle the most challenging of projects across a wide range of industries by lending their expertise to specific problems and different backgrounds.

What stands out about Romania's IT sector can be described in one word - quality. The IT sector has seen a manageable level of growth over the past several years and due to the sector's dedication to creativity and innovation, it will certainly continue to grow and increase its competitiveness in the global economy.

The large pool of highly-educated, creative IT specialists with outstanding work ethic sees the strengths of working for Romania-based IT companies - both international and domestic.

What places Romanian IT engineers in the top tier of world-class service providers is the combination of technical and communication skills, very competitive prices, and great work ethic, similar to the best talents in the world's largest IT companies.

The following facts support the statement above:

  • The Romanian IT sector contains more than 3.000 technology companies and it was the fastest growing IT market in Europe in 2006.

Romania has always been known for its strong multilingual skills. In fact, The Economist recently said, « Romania is the second most multilingual country in Europe». Among employees in the IT sector, the English fluency rate is greater than 80 percent.

  • The nation as a whole is really driving innovation. According to the World Bank, Romania was Europe's number one business environment reformer – the average time it takes to start a business (like an IT services operation, etc.) is only 11 days, which is 21 days faster than the regional average.
  • According to the Ernst and Young 2007 Attractiveness Survey, Romania is perceived as the most attractive country for productivity gains among all South East European nations.
  • Did you know that Romania has a greater number of engineers per capita than the USA, India, China, or Russia?

The following facts support Romanian education which will ensure important IT businesses become successful in Romania:

  • According to The Economist, Romania is the European leader, and 6th in the world, in the number of certified IT specialists it produces.
  • According to The Economist, Romania graduates 30,000 engineers annually, of which 5,000 are trained in Information and Communication Technology, as opposed to the United States, which graduates fewer engineers and has a population ten times that of Romania's.
  • Romania's IT sector boasts approximately 64.000 specialists, of which more than 45,000 work in private companies and nearly 19,000 are software engineers.
  • The annual number of ICT graduates increased from 3,000 in 1986 to over 29,000 in 2004 at Bucharest Polytechnic University alone.
  • According to the 2006 Brainbench Global Skills Report, Romania is among the top 5 countries (ahead of the UK and Canada) in terms of overall certifications issued.

Romania has five elite polytechnic universities throughout the country, 59 other universities, and 174 private colleges with technical degree programs. The most important ones are located in the main academic centers of Romania: Bucuresti, Cluj, Iasi, Timisoara, Craiova. Because of close contact with employers in various industries, the education system is both rigorous and focused on market needs.

The visible and proven growth of the IT&C sector led to a decrease of the "brain drain" phenomenon and to an increase of local investment coming from important players such as Microsoft, Advanced Micro Devices, Amazon, SAP, Intel Capital, Oracle, HP, and Siemens that acknowledge, by investing in the Romanian IT &C market, the creative talent and technical excellence of our specialists. Because of our talented workforce, driven of course by our focus on quality IT-related education, we have seen the IT sector move from a low-cost provider to a high-value technology partner. As the sector moves in this direction, we will see that most of the home-grown talent will remain in the country.

Other facts that can be mentioned to show Romanian worldwide IT competencies are:

  • Low staff turnover - migration of the technical staff towards other companies is very low.
  • Cultural proximity - a unique combination of Latin enthusiasm, Balcanic perseverance, and a great education system.

Besides being a proud member, IT Six Global Services is a key and active partner in the process of creating and promoting the nation's industry brand: www.romaniaIT.com.