Ukraine Steps Up the Heat

IBA GroupMark Kobayashi-HillaryNew data from real estate experts Jones Lang LaSalle has indicated that Romania and Ukraine are becoming far more important players in the Central and Eastern Europe outsourcing market – challenging the more traditionally dominant Polish market.Ukraine was highlighted in the research — the value of its IT outsourcing market hit $1bn in 2011, the Financial Times reported earlier this month, up tenfold in the last decade.Among those major companies setting up in Ukraine, according to Kyiv Post, is Nestle, which recently opened a service centre — right across the border from Poland in Lviv.You might ask why a real estate company is releasing data on the ITO and BPO industries and how they could be offering analysis on the growth of the hi-tech service sector. Growth in these markets needs people and offices and so one of the business areas with their finger right on the pulse of which region has the most interesting growth prospects is the commercial real estate sector.They know where companies are investing before the companies themselves make a big noise about their own success – so markets like Ukraine are clearly now developing a momentum worth watching closely.Poland may remain dominant in the BPO and call centre market, but this enormous growth in IT spending further east is a sign of where the smart money is heading.