Romania could very well be the next IT outsourcing destination after India, with its low costs, language proficiency, burgeoning infrastructure and engineering skills. In a recent outsourcing expo held in New York, delegates from 26 Romanian companies wanted to rally in IT Offshoring business from US and other international companies. US Companies like Microsoft are already working with Romanian IT and software services firms to develop their software.

Romania is developing its IT infrastructure to usher in more business, by bringing in broadband roll outs in rural areas and multi million dollar program to subsidize the purchases of PCs for families. A significant advantage of Romania is its cheap labour force. The average annual income for software developers in Romania is about $6,000, says Constin Lianu, general director for export promotion at the Romanian Ministry of Economy and Commerce, almost double the $3,300 average per-capita income. Software pros working for multinationals can bring in much higher paychecks. Romania has always been known for engineering skills, even under Communist rule.

There are about 45,000 software developers in Romania and 8,000 graduates enter the field annually, Lianu says. In the recent years many have left Romania to look out for work elsewhere. But this trend is changing with increasing number of IT professional returning. The multilingual workforce Romania has is of significant advantage to any company looking for an Offshoring destination. Most Romanian IT professionals speak English and many are bilingual speaking French, German, Swedish, Finnish, Greek, Danish etc. With its Engineering skills, low cost, multilingual capability, developing infrastructure, Romania could very well be called the next India.

But are Indians losing their business to Romania is something worth thinking about. A recent example is of Disaster recovery-software company Neverfail Group Ltd. who were struck by workers language abilities when it chose to open a tech-support office in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, according to Martin Procter, a product and services director at Neverfail. Neverfail, which also has a support center in Scotland, had investigated opening a support center in India, which won on cost, Procter says. However, in the end, Romanians strong understanding of English and other multilingual skills won over Indias lower costs.