According to a recent study by ANIS, the Employers' Association of the Software and Services Industry, the Romanian IT market is dynamic and constantly growing. It reached a volume of EUR 9 billion from EUR 4.6 billion in 2015 and could exceed EUR 12 billion in the next two years.

The local IT market kept developing even in the pandemic year of 2020 when it registered an increase in volume by EUR 1.1 billion.

Compared to the general trend of economic growth in Romania, the IT segment's annual growth rate is three times higher, at 15-17% per year.

"We see a continuous growth of the software and services market in Romania, the impact of the IT sector in the national gross domestic product reaching 7%. There are very high hopes for the further development of this segment, through the large digitization projects to be implemented at the level of the local economy. Thus, in the next two years, the value of the IT market in Romania would exceed EUR 12 billion," said Gabriela Mechea, Executive Director of ANIS.

The value of IT & services exports has also grown considerably - 2.5 times in the last 5 years. Thus, from EUR 2.5 billion in 2015, exports reached a volume of EUR 6 billion. In addition, the volume of exports of R&D (research and development) services tripled in the same time frame, from EUR 200 million to EUR 600 million.

The same source said that nearly half of the software and services market belongs to large companies. Thus, the companies with more than 250 employees represent 47% of the total volume of business generated by the industry (EUR 4 billion), followed by small companies (2-49 employees) - 27% of the total market volume, or EUR 2.5 billion, and medium-sized companies (50-250 employees) - EUR 1.8 billion.

Micro enterprises (0-1 employees) currently represent 8% of the market volume (EUR 0.7 billion), registering a stable growth of approximately EUR 100 million annually.

In terms of regions, Bucharest brings in almost two-thirds of the total market volume (60%, down from 64% in 2015), followed by the North-West region, especially the area of Cluj county (18%). The West (7%), North-East (6%), Center (5%) and South (4%) regions follow.

The capital structure remained stable at the national level. Thus, 64% of IT companies have foreign capital, and 36% have Romanian capital.

Currently, the IT market counts no less than 21,847 companies, representing an increase of 60%. Micro-enterprises saw the biggest rate of development, registering a 78% increase in the number of companies in the last 5 years.

The IT and services sector has 147,000 employees, and large companies employ the majority (47%), ANIS also said. Medium-sized companies employ 27% of workers, while another 21% work in small-sized companies. Overall, the sector has been reporting a constant increase in the number of employees, of approximately 8-9,000 per year.

Most IT specialists in Romania (76%) have university degrees, according to the same study. Meanwhile, the gender gap remains significant in the Romanian IT&C market, with only 26% of all employees in this industry being women (53,000).

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

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