- More than 33% of graduates come from technical universities in Serbia.
- Serbia has an educated workforce with highly educated professionals in Engineering, Physics, Mathematics, and Computer Programming.
- Serbia offers favorable business conditions and attractive tax incentives.
- Low labor costs and highly skilled and trained IT professionals. The monthly salaries of Serbian software developers have experienced steady growth.
- Leading corporations such as FIAT, Microsoft, BOSCH, Siemens, Panasonic, Telenor, SAP, IBM, Intel, Schneider Electric, STADA, and Swarovski have their presence in Serbia.
- Microsoft opened its 4th development center in the world in Belgrade.
- Serbia is home to 1,600 IT companies employing more than 14,000 people (KPMG Publication, 2014).
- There is governmental support towards the IT sector, including technology parks, investment incentives, incubators and clusters, startup support, and export promotion.
- StartLabs Tech Accelerator was founded in 2013 to connect tech startups from the country with experts and investors from Silicon Valley.
- Nearshore outsourcing to Serbia means doing business in a country that has legislation with EU standards.
Even more reasons why companies should consider nearshore outsourcing to Serbia:
- Serbia’s capital, Belgrade, was named the City of the Future for Southern Europe (fDi Magazine, 2007).
- Serbia is an EU candidate country.
- It has geographical proximity and is in the Western EU time zone (GMT+1).
- Serbia is just a 3-hour flight away from most major European cities.
- In 2011, Serbia was the leader in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) with €2.2 billion of investments.
- Serbia was one of the countries with the greatest capacity to attract large job-intensive projects (Ernst & Young’s Attractiveness Survey report for 2012 and 2013).
- Corporate profit tax is 15%, and personal income taxes are 10%.
- VAT is at 20% with a lower rate of 8% for some products.
- Serbia has many famous people who have special significance in the world, such as the world major inventor Nikola Tesla, geophysicist Milutin Milankovic, tennis pro Novak Djokovic, basketball player Vlade Divac, etc.
- Belgrade is recognized as the World’s #1 Ultimate Party City (Lonely Planet).
- Serbian Voda Voda was declared one of the three top brands in the world among 135 producers from 30 countries at the third World Congress of Bottled Water Producers held in Bergamo, Italy.
These factors make Serbia one of the most attractive European destinations for IT outsourcing and business investment.