Why Serbia ?
Because Serbia offers an excellent mix of location convenience, adherence to European cultural values, high amount of technical and mathematical expert skills and, finally of considerably lower production cost compared to the Western markets.
Located in Europe and bordered by mostly EU member states, Serbia’s geographical position is very competitive as is the fact that services in Serbia do not adhere to all-European VAT due to country’s absence from the EU membership. Close distance to major European centers is easily covered with one of two hour flights thus giving Serbian outsourcing staff a significant mobility during the project development.
As part of the CET time zone (GMT+1), Serbian outsourcing companies do not experience well-known problems with difference in working hours as is the case with farther destinations. Working hours are similar to those within the EU except one hour difference with the United Kingdom and Ireland. Clients from the United States also appreciate the four-hour overlap of working hours with the East Coast.
Serbia is part of the European cultural heritage thus we share the common cultural space with the Western Europe, UK, USA, Australia or Canada. The majority of Serbian IT experts speak English. Serbian companies adhere to equal business principles and ethics as their Western counterparts – and cultural similarity is known to act as one of the key factors of successful business partnership.
Long-term tradition of studying mathematical and technical sciences and high numbers of educated personnel in combination with considerably lower rates per hour allow the development of complex solutions under restricted budgets. IT sector is one of the fastest growing segments of Serbian market mainly due to the quality of staff and the affordable cost per service ratio.
Country’s financial stability and the constant economical growth in the last 5 years (6, 3% in 2006), streamlining of legislation with EU standards and an enforced mutual tax-free trade agreement with Russia (the only European country outside the CIS) cannot but echo that Serbia remains a good deal when it comes to choosing the outsourcing destination.