Europe/Africa
Bulgaria
Government support/laws: Fair.
Quality initiatives: 469 ISO 9000 certifications.
Major providers: Global Consulting (www.globalcons.com), Prosoft www.prosoft.bg), Rila Solutions (www.rila.com), Wizcom (www.wizcom.bg).
Major customers: BMW, General Motors, Lockheed Martin.
Cities/Centres of outsourcing: Sofia.
National IT organisation: Bulgarian Association of Information Technologies (BAIT; www.bait.bg).
Size of industry: $US10 million; 7000 professionals.
Total labour force: 3.9 million.
Areas of expertise: Application development, application maintenance.
Czech Republic
Government support/laws: Fair.
Quality initiatives: 334 ISO 9000 certifications.
Major providers: Deltax (www.deltax.cz), ICZ (www.i.cz), ISS (www.iss.cz), Minerva Czech Republic (www.minerva-is.cz), Pragodata (www.pragodata.cz).
Major customers: NA.
Cities/Centres of outsourcing: Prague.
National IT organisation: NA.
Size of industry: $US689.2 million.
Total labour force: 5.1 million.
Areas of expertise: Application development, application maintenance.
Egypt
Government support/laws: Poor. The Egyptian Ministry of communications and Information Technology is establishing a $US30 million university in Cairo devoted to IT to be open in 2004. However, Egyptian government continues to impose high fees, taxes and customs duties.
Quality initiatives: 546 ISO 9000 certifications.
Major providers: NileSoft (www.nilesoft.com.eg).
Major customers: CreditSuisse.
Cities/Centres of outsourcing: Cairo, Giza, Heliopolis.
National IT organisation: Egyptian Exporters Association (Expo-Link; www.expolink.org.eg).
Size of industry: $US5 million to $US7 million.
Total labour force: 19.9 million.
Areas of expertise: Application development, application maintenance, packaged software implementation.
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