Outsourcing, Russia

Eager for outsourcing, Russia battles image problem

Russia is bidding for a bigger slice of the lucrative global offshore-outsourcing market, but it is being hindered by the poor international perception of the country.

Russia's IT services industry is currently growing at about 10 percent per year and was worth $1 billion in 2005. But even though Russia is in Gartner's top 10 list of near-shore outsourcing locations, the research firm said companies are still wary of sending work there.

"One of the biggest challenges is global public perception of Russia as a place to take work to," said Ian Marriott, research vice president at Gartner. "If you look at what companies are doing, they are saying they are happy to do business in Eastern Europe--but not Russia. That's going to take years to break down."

By Andy McCue
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