IT industry to run short of people

For next year, the National IT Research Agency (ANCI) estimates that the Romanian IT industry might be facing a shortage of “skills,” for the first time in 40 years. The universities train 2,500-3,000 programmers, analysts and system engineers every year, while the demand is estimated at 4,000.

According to analysts, this is a paradox for a SE European country where IT has a unique tradition, since the first computer in Romania was built in 1957.

There are currently more than 1,200 IT and communications (IT&C) companies in Romania, whose cumulated revenues in 1999 amounted to over 30 million dollars.

Nearly three-quarters of the information technology and communications companies are based in Bucharest, which means that about 66% of the “skills” work in the Capital.

The available work force in the IT sector currently reaches 40,000 people, more than half of which are programmers.

As for the implementation of computer technologies, the IT&C expenses in 1999 amounted to 747 million dollars (1.8% of GDP, up 39% since 1998), 313 million dollars of which account for IT expenses.

Also in 1999, Romanians spent over 56 million dollars for hardware and software, 24% more than in the previous year.

International Data Corporation (IDC) anticipates a 23% increase in the number of PCs in Romania, 31% of which will be aimed at LANs. All in all, the PC market according to IDC will register an 11.2% annual growth throughout 1999-2004, as compared with 16.2% between 1992-1999.

As for the communications market, the number of phone lines in 1999 exceeded 5.3 million (23.5% national density), while the number of mobile phone users amounted to more than 2.4 million.

IDC estimates an over 120% annual increase in the number of mobile phones, while the same increase for 1999 compared with 1998 reached only 108%.

The electronic commerce and the Internet are becoming widespread in the Romanian industry. Therefore, the number of Internet hosts went up from about 23,000 in January 1999 to over 36,700 in September last year (up 56.5%), while the number of surfers exceeded 580,000 early in 2000, only to reach about one million now.

The number of electronic payment means (credit and debit cards etc) went beyond 770,000 in mid last year, whereas a series of leading banks on the Romanian market started providing e-banking services.

Where the electronic commerce is concerned, there were more than ten business to business (B2B) sites and more than 25 business to consumer (B2C) sites at the end of last year.