The IT giants that operate in Romania plan to continue investments in the development of local centers, as Romania is one of top locations by number of people with IT skills.
“There are 120,000 IT&C specialists in Romania, we have more engineers per capita than the US, China and Russia,” said Sorin Mandrutescu, country manager Oracle Romania, at the ZF Digital ’16 conference.
“The Romanian subsidiary, for instance, provides 14% of the global support for Oracle software products.”
Oracle Romania is the largest employer in the IT sector in the country, with more than 4,500 people working for it.
The growth of the local IT and software market, however, mostly relies on exports, the representatives of the companies attending the conference said.
“We are seeing significant growth in the private sector, mainly because of the adoption of cloud technologies,” said Cristian Popescu, country manager of SAP Romania.
The challenge the local software and IT services industry is facing is attracting specialized workforce, as demand is far greater than supply.
“The educational system does not turn out enough IT graduates to meet demand. There is clearly a shortage in terms of numbers at the moment,” said Carmen Adamescu, partner with EY – leading IT Advisory Practice & IT Risk Assurance.
“Moreover, we are still seeing a problem with the quality of the IT graduates. Colleges must adjust their curricula to the requirements of the market. It is not the quantity of developers in a specific technology that makes the difference but the added value they give to the market.”
The local market remains attractive to foreign investors, though.
“We are in talks with Korean and Japanese companies that have investment projects. It is something that will take a while, things will not change overnight, but the important thing is to have a vision, “said Delia Popescu, minister of Communications and Information Society.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)