“Foreign clients with outsourcing projects in Romania were not attracted by a coherent strategy, but by a favorable economic context, which makes them behave in an unpredictable manner. Some clients are reducing the level of projects or freezing these completely,” said Dragan.

The ANIS official estimates the value of outsourcing projects on the local market at €500 million. According to Dragan, the Romanian IT market will suffer a contraction this year, which will be felt especially in the quarters ahead.

“There have not been any projects in the first quarter in the public sector, because the state budget had not been finalized. There was hope for the second quarter, which is postponed for the third or fourth quarter. IT companies will be sharply affected by the crisis in the second and third quarters of this year,” Dragan added.

TotalSoft posted a 15 percent rise in business in this year’s first three months, to €5.5 million, and forecasts €20-21 mln in net sales for the whole of 2009, up 15-20 percent year-on-year.