The outsourcing industry has always favoured Asian countries in the past and they still dominate the industry; but Eastern European countries are asserting their presence in the outsourcing market today. Bulgaria is ranked as number 7 in the list of “The Top Ten Countries for Outsourcing Business” made by Ranker, just after countries as India, China, Malaysia, Thailand, Brazil and Indonesia. Famous international companies like Hewlett Packard, Reuters, Boeing, Siemens, IBM, Ericsson, SAP and Ford Motor Co have already chosen Bulgaria for some of their outsourcing activities.
Outsourcing is normally seen as an integrated part of the ongoing globalization. Experts often characterize globalization as a process that has changed the challenges that both companies and individuals face. Geographical distances have reduced their importance due to the Internet, improvements in infrastructure and modern technology. Hence, the focus is now on establishing international production lines in several countries, so that the company is able to offer its products at the best price and quality.
At this point, you might have noticed that the list has a strong trend toward Asian countries. Bulgaria is making Eastern Europe proud through its fundamental strategy, “nearshoring”. This country offers less expensive labor and services toward neighboring countries, which include the United States and Western Europe. This tactic has helped the country climb the ranks and reach the top ten among outsourcing countries. Through an attractive and stable macroeconomic and political environment, the country has been able to provide competitive pricing and a high-quality workforce.
Outsourcing offers a company various benefits:
• Reduction in operation costs: One of the main arguments for outsourcing a business is the opportunity for the outsourcing company to lower its operation costs. The transfer of a business function to a third party in a foreign country is related to significant reduction of costs due to the fact that same activities are paid several times less in countries where business is outsourced;
• Focus on the core of the business: Outsourcing gives companies the opportunity to focus on their core competences, thus being more efficient in their business operations;
• Quality improvement: Outsourcing is a process of delegating operations or jobs to an external entity that specializes in that operation, and thus offers a high quality of implementation; • Better location in terms of new markets: outsourcing gives the opportunity to approach new clients faster and more efficiently. Very often it saves time for distribution and increases the competitive advantages.
Thirty years experience in Bulgaria shows that successful EPZs (export processing zones) evolve upscale to higher technologies and profits. How can governments accelerate this process? Global managers of Export Processing Zones, Free Zones, Science Parks, and User Industries debated this question with Government officials in Bulgaria and resulted in Industrial & Business Park Aitos development project.
Steps followed by the Industrial & Business Park Aitos management, strongly supported by Bulgarian government, include: 1) enable the market environment, 2) share profits with inventors, 3) avoid the brain drain, 4) nurture centers of excellence in management and technology, 5) link zones to local enterprises, 6) encourage zones to move to new services, 7) financial services, 8) shelter program services, especially for smaller firms, 9) recognize that
technology transfer is not a free commodity, and 10) stay flexible within a core policy.
The Industrial & Business Park Aitos is a track of land set aside for industrial development conveniently located close to transport facilities:
• Highways
• Railroads
• International airports
• International Marine Ports
• Container terminals
• Office park, which has offices and light industry, rather than heavy industry
All-in-one in Industrial & Business Park, Aitos, Bulgaria
The idea of setting land aside through this type of Zoning is based on several concepts:
- To be able to concentrate dedicated infrastructure in a delimited area to reduce the per-business expense of that infrastructure. Such infrastructure includes roadways, railroad sidings, ports, high-power electric supplies (often including three-phase power), high-end communications cables, large-volume water supplies, and high-volume gas lines;
- To be able to attract new business by providing an integrated infrastructure in one location;
- To set aside industrial uses from urban areas to try to reduce the environmental and social impact of the industrial uses;
- To provide for localized environmental controls that are specific to the needs of an industrial area.
Industrial & Business Park Aitos means also Investment Promotion, Trade and Export Development as a source of corporate expansion and economic growth
We assist local governments and private companies in seizing the opportunities that an integrated world economy offers - access to foreign capital, new market opportunities and increased trade:
• design and implementation of investment promotion programmes;
• profiles for investment projects and promotion to potential Western European, US, Russian and Chinese business partners;
• policy advice in investment promotion and export development;
• realisation of export promotion programmes, including trade fair representation, for companies, sectors and countries, achieving significant and quantifiable increases in export earnings.
