Who is outsourcing to Bulgaria?

It’s not once I heard “Romania and Bulgaria” mentioned together when there is a reference to outsourcing to Eastern Europe. I believe this is more likely a laziness on the writers side rather than a true fact. My theory is that since Romania and Bulgaria are mentioned very often together when we speak about EU Enlargement to Eastern Europe, the same reference was borrowed when we speak about outsourcing to Eastern Europe. It’s the same spot of the world afterwards.

However, the number of companies doing outsourcing in Bulgaria, the number of contracts going to Bulgaria, and in fact the competitiveness and quality of Bulgaria’s IT industry when it comes to outsourcing are far less than those offered by Romania. A search on Google for “outsourcing Bulgaria” returns 1020 results. However searching “outsourcing Romania”returns 47600 results, a huge difference.

One quick look at the statistics offered by Eurydice on language skills don’t bring an advantage to Bulgaria. The information network on education in Europe, revealed that in Bulgaria only 13,9% of primary students learn English, while in Romania this is 27,8%.Double!

So, who is outsourcing to Bulgaria anyway?