The Central and Eastern European (CEE) IT sector is rapidly developing today. In 2021, the Global Outsourcing 100 included more than a dozen companies in their list, with the main office in the CEE region with IBA Group, Solberg, Sigma Software, and others among them. According to The IT Landscape: The Future of IT in Emerging Europe report, the CEE IT sector is estimated to have 2 million people employed in 2020, and the number is growing by 3% each year. Meanwhile, the region’s most prominent IT talent pool is in Poland. It reached over 400,000 software developers in 2019.

The Portuguese National ICT Sector is a highly innovative and dynamic sector, which already represents nearly 10% of the Portuguese GDP, reaching almost 20 billion US$ in total turnover, according to the latest data available from the National Portuguese ICT Cluster, TICE. With young and highly qualified resources, it employs more than 80,000 people; in the past decade, the profile of ICT companies has shifted from traditional ICT providers to highly specified and innovative start-ups and is supported by world-class research developed in partnership with Portuguese universities.

New opportunities exist in the ICT sector as Bulgarian companies work to increase their competitiveness in the EU and as the Bulgarian government complies with EU directives and legislation concerning its digital economy. Bulgaria’s ICT sector is characterized as stable and constantly growing, making it one of the most profitable sectors in Bulgaria. Bulgaria has a long, rich tradition in the IT and electronics sectors (dating back to the Communist era) and is still known as the Silicon Valley of Southeastern Europe.

The rapidly growing IT sector is one of the most exciting and attractive industries in Ukraine, with over 4,000 tech companies. It is also diverse – from nanotechnologies and blockchain to AI and game development. 18 Ukrainian companies are listed among the 100 top outsourcing companies by the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals. More than 100 Fortune 500 clients and several other large companies have chosen Ukrainian IT services, including Nasdaq, Amazon, Adobe, SAP, Hotels.com, Vodafone, ING, Microsoft, Allianz, Bosch, KIA, Playbuzz, SAS, Volvo, Viaplay, etc.

Latvia’s IT sector provides substantial competitive advantages to investors, mainly through the availability of highly skilled IT professionals, language skills, and a Western-style working culture. Latvia has a highly developed communications and logistics infrastructure and high labor productivity.

Information technology in Pakistan is a growing industry that has the potential to expand more in the future. Matters relating to the IT industry are overseen by the Ministry of Information Technology of the Government of Pakistan. The IT industry is economically regarded as a thriving sector of Pakistan, even during the financial crisis. The first IT policy and implementation strategy was approved under the leadership of Atta-ur-Rahman, the Federal Minister of Science and Technology, in August 2000, laying the foundations for this sector’s development.

Egypt’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector is very robust, with a growth rate higher than Egypt’s overall GDP growth, equivalent to 15.2 percent in the fiscal year 2019/2020. Its contribution to the GDP has increased to 4.4% in the fiscal year 2019/2020 compared to 3.5% in 2018/2019. Total investments in the sector increased by 35 percent in 2019/2020 and reached $3.5 billion.