At a time when worldwide demand for IT engineers has skyrocketed, the demography of so-called developed countries can no longer cope. Within this context, offshoring allows to develop overall engineering capacities in countries that lack labour force. As I was saying a few days ago, Germany will be facing a challenging situation beginning with this year.

The other possibility, which might turn to reality just as well, is that the temptation of giving in to the appeal of the West might be too strong for young graduates from offshore/nearshore countries and that they might follow the sirens of companies that were caught off-guard by demography and the abandonment of engineering professions.

All ITO operators in Moldova, Belarus, Ukraine and a few other countries with a reduced quality of life are well aware of this fact. This time last year, I was struggling, a bit like Don Quixote, to convince Moldovans to remain in Moldova. I think I was successful with only two people. Since then, the exodus has continued. I still have conversations with some of the people who have taken the great step of moving to America. Many of them aren’t truly happy there, because you can’t leave your close ones behind without any consequences, but they don’t fully regret their choice, either. And I know why…

Nothing in Moldova or Ukraine seems to point to any changes. Hospitals continue to be death factories, school standards don’t encourage people to have children, roads are dangerous… Democracy has seen a small development in Moldova and I welcome that. But when companies don’t pay their social contributions and taxes, employees don’t pay them, either, do they (taxes and contributions are deducted at source)? Under these circumstances, any improvement in public services is unimaginable.

However, the governments of these countries continue to be highly interested in the IT sector, which they consider to be a true outlet for export that doesn’t really need infrastructures (unlike the industry, for instance) and a means to establish a qualified local workforce, with high purchasing power. These government gentlemen (unfortunately, there aren’t many ladies) continue to ignore that the public has in many cases traveled abroad, has friends in other countries and communicates intensely with them. They forget that people who spend several years at university develop high-level social reflexes and, above all, that they have common dreams.

In Moldova, an agreement is being forged between companies which pay taxes and contributions to exert pressure on different companies which use tax havens for paying their employees , for instance, or those which pay salary differences in cash to their employees. This first collective reflex must be given meaning. It is very simple and we have known this for a long time: most emigrants are in search of a better health, education, transport system… in short, they are in search of harmony.

The governments of these countries must understand that they can’t keep engineers in the country and organize a software outsourcing industry without putting social infrastructures on the road to progress.

It is also up to you, as clients, to choose companies which respect the laws of the countries in which they are based and offer an alternative to local systems through private protection schemes where available. You can also choose countries that are firmly committed to taking the road to progress. Otherwise, you risk being faced with a great deal of staff turnover caused by emigration, thus leading to time-wasting. Some countries are more affected than others by what can be seen as a genuine curse for people who stay. Deprived of the workforce and experience of those who leave, people who stay must take over harder workloads when clients simply won’t go. In this sense, I must confess that, within Pentalog, we find in Romania, more than elsewhere, a European framework that, far from being ideal, meets the fundamental rules of modern societies. Although a bit more expensive than our alternatives, it provides our clients with a particularly efficient solution… therefore, a benefit to the Union, to social systems and to democracy.