The “city under the hills” continues to increase its growth in IT and outsourcing industry
August 19, 2015, Plovdiv – The Municipality of Plovdiv announced the entry of another big IT company in the city. Thereby, Plovdiv convincingly confirms the trend towards becoming a center for IT and outsourcing industry. The Ukrainian company Speedflow plans to start operations actively in Plovdiv next autumn. Employees have already begun arriving with their families and the Municipality of Plovdiv is contributing to the placement of their children in nurseries, kindergartens and schools.
“Our main goal is to make Plovdiv a favorite place for life, visits and business. Over the years, we have identified all the advantages of the city, we have also created new ones and presented them in Bulgaria and worldwide. One of our main objectives is to focus on the IT and outsourcing industry and therefore today’s news is a reward for our efforts and it shows that we are on the right path”, said Eng. Ivan Totev, Mayor of Plovdiv.
Speedflow has offices in London and Hong Kong and is a leading global provider of telecom billing systems and software solutions with a total turnover of 39 million US dollars for the year 2014. By the end of the present year the company is planning to hire 50 more Bulgarian employees who are expected to be paid from 1000 to 3000 BGN.
“Moving us in Plovdiv was a matter of economics, not love, even though I was born here. Before we made our decision we had studied many countries such as Poland, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and others. We analyzed many of the larger Bulgarian cities and Plovdiv has been chosen because it is a fantastic city in terms of logistics, infrastructure, professional staff and administrative support. For one business it only remains to look after itself”, said Vlad Ellis, owner of Speedflow.
According to the company a major factor in the choice of the city of Plovdiv is the high quality and standard of living. “That is the reason why our employees are moving to another country and city”.
Data for the IT and Outsourcing sector in Plovdiv
According to the latest data in the ‘IT and Outsourcing’ sector, between 4000 and 4500 people work in Plovdiv and for the last three years the number of employees has doubled. Creating new jobs for young and talented graduates continues to be among the highest priorities for the local government and preserving the current trend in a medium term the employees can reach 8 000 – 10 000 people.
Plovdiv is also becoming more attractive because of its new office projects, which have already started, and its lower rental price compared to the capital. In few years the market needs of elite Class A office spaces will exceed 100,000 square meters. Over the past three years Plovdiv has established itself as the second most important destination in the ‘IT and Outsourcing’ sector after Sofia. Evidence for this is the opening of offices of many well-known international companies such as “Telus International”, “Aii Data Pro”, “Scale Focus”, “Unify”, “60K”, “Questers Group”, “Programista”, “Sofica Group”, etc. and now also “Speedflow”, registered in Bulgaria as “Speedflow Bulgaria EOOD”. Over 70 companies in the sector already have their offices in Plovdiv, as the trend foreign companies to enter the market in Bulgaria through Plovdiv is increasing.
Business Forum Outsourcing Destination Bulgaria
In order to support and improve the business environment, Municipality of Plovdiv and “Industry Watch” are organizing the second annual Business forum “Outsourcing Destination Bulgaria” in Hotel Novotel on 10 September 2015. The main goal of this year’s event is to continue the discussions on human capital and the required skills, the cooperation between the IT and outsourcing business and the educational institutions, as a condition for building entrepreneurial ecosystem. One of the main highlights in this respect is the pressing question with the policy of attracting talents from countries outside the EU. The forum will be attended by professionals with deep insights on the topics, members of the central and local authorities and trade organizations, representatives of companies, which will provide feedback on what is to do business in Plovdiv, condition and prospects.
Municipality of Plovdiv and Industry Watch are the organizers of the forum in partnership with InvestBulgaria Agency, Bulgarian Outsourcing Association, ICT Cluster Plovdiv, Bulgarian Association of Software Companies and Bulgarian Association of Information Technologies. The complete program of the forum with topics of the panels, information on speakers and registration for the forum can be found at: http://outsourcing.plovdiv.bg/en
