“We want exports to generate 40% of our EUR77 million revenue this year,” said Irina Socol, chief executive officer of Siveco. “There is a huge potential for computerization in the Middle East,” she added.
“The Middle East is considered an ‘exotic’ place for now, without any major contribution to the software industry in Romania,” believes Eugen Schwab-Chesariu, general manager for Central and Eastern Europe of Pierre Audoin Consultants. “It’s a destination with a lot of money, though, which means things can change at any time.”
Software applications ‘made in Romania’ are no longer a novelty for countries like Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. Irina Socol, founder and chief executive of the Romanian software and IT services company Siveco has been doing business in the Middle East and Africa for a number of years now. The company is working on educational projects for public institutions and one such example is the contract with the Education Ministry in Egypt.
Liviu Dragan, chairman and chief executive of software company TotalSoft is looking at the same region for growth. He signed a consultancy and management contract with Saudi Arabia’s Saudi Aramco Total Refining and Petrochemical Company (SATORP) last year, the builder of the world’s biggest refinery, Jubail Refinery. The company has also had projects in Qatar and the UAE and is looking at the entire Middle East for international expansion.
The list of companies doing business in the Middle East is much longer, though. On the one hand, the destination is more accessible to Romania than the others such as most of the Central and Eastern Europe, a market already mature, which is not really open to foreign entrepreneurs. On the other hand, the Arab countries have a low computerization rate, therefore any developer, and not just Romanian ones, can have very easy access. Which means nothing other than growth for Romanian companies, considering few places in the world have the same potential.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)