On November 19, 2020, Switzerland Global Enterprise S-GE held the webinar entitled “ICT Landscape in Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia” in cooperation with the Bulgarian-Swiss Chamber of Commerce, the Swiss-Romanian CC and the Swiss-Serbian Chamber of Commerce.
The event attracted approx. 50 registered participants, including IT companies from Zurich and Lugano. Majo Micovic, SSCC President, stated the following ”This event underlined the good business opportunities the Serbian market offers in the field of ICT. I am confident that Swiss companies will consider Serbia as a potential market for future investments, especially in the ICT and services-focused projects”
The purpose of this joint event was to give insights on the Bulgarian, Romanian and Serbian ICT sector to Swiss ICT companies. Katalin Dreher-Hajnal, S-GE Senior Consultant Central Eastern Europe, emphasized that COVID-19 has intensified the digital transformation of business processes. According to the S-GE survey, the most important learning that Swiss SMEs have drawn out of the crisis is the consequent acceleration of digitization. The IT resources in Switzerland, however, have reached their capacities and this is why the webinar took place in order to enable interested companies from Switzerland to explore potential cooperation partnerships in Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania.
“The ICT markets in Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania with their highly skilled and motivated employees are offering great potential for collaboration for the Swiss ICT companies. The talent pool of educated students and the comparably low wages, as well as the geographical and cultural proximity, are the key success factors. I hope our event could enhance the dialog of the ICT community and foster future collaboration”, Mrs. Dreher-Hajnal stated.
Furthermore, the online event showcased the success stories of established ICT companies operating on these markets, such as Namics doo in Belgrade, Managing Director, Philipp Gort, Dreamix in Bulgaria and Teamextention in Romania. The presentations were followed by a panel discussion, in which SSCC member Ivan Kovačević, founder and CEO of the company “Codetribe” took part, about the main opportunities and challenges ICT companies are facing when developing their business operations on these markets, including wages and talent pool.