Exports of software and services, up to 350m euros

Romania’s exports of software and services will come to 350 million euros this year, against the 280 million-euro level last year, stated Zsolt Nagy, communications minister.
“This sector will witness faster growth than Romania’s entire export operations will see at the end of this year”.
Software exports will follow the same upward trend over the next three to five years, Liviu Dragan, chairman of the Software and Services Industry Employers’ Association and general manager of TotalSoft, told ZIARUL FINANCIAR.
He said software exports would gradually shift towards a lower weight of code writing services and a higher weight of complex services in the software domain.
“In fact, this is inevitable since we will lose our cost advantage over the following years that is so important when it comes to outsourcing.
With its highly-skilled specialists, cultural and geographical proximity to EU countries, Romania will become a destination for those complex projects that can be carried out at lower costs than in Western countries, anyway,” explained Dragan.
The minister made these comments amid the launch of the strategy draft on export branding for the IT sector.
“We want to promote the idea with investors that Romanian companies have gone beyond the outsourcing stage and have moved on to a new level, namely they are entities that can create added value,” said Nagy.
Among other things, the branding strategy targets rising investments in the IT field, the promotion of a new image of the IT market and the creation of new jobs in this sector, Moreover, the branding strategy is related to the identification of niche segments of the IT market, which could allow domestic companies to compete with Indian, Russian or Chinese companies on equal footing.
“Two market niches have already emerged, namely automotive automation industry and data security industry,” said Nagy.
He added that the budget earmarked for the branding strategy, which will be applied starting 2007, amounts to 90,000 euros.
“Funds raised from professional associations, as well as institutional resources will be added to this sum,” specified Nagy.
Florin Talpes, Softwin chairman, considers the new strategy should primarily support the opening of research and development centres part of international IT companies in Romania. “These are high added-value operations that, beside turnover per specialist, ensure a revival of the Romanian research system Romania badly needs at present,” stated Talpes.
Last but not least, another part of the Romanian IT that needs to be promoted is the production of “made in Romania” software.