October 24 (SeeNews) - The outsourcing sector is expected to generate 9.2% of Bulgaria's GDP in 2022, up from 5.2% last year, if the current revenue growth rate is maintained, Bulgaria's Association for Innovation, Business Excellence, Services and Technology (AIBEST) said on Thursday.
Bulgaria's outsourcing sector contributed 4.8% of the country's GDP in 2017.
The revenues of the outsourcing sector are seen rising to 4.8 billion euro ($5.3 billion) in 2022, from 2.4 billion euro in 2018, AIBEST, which has recently changed its name from Bulgarian Outsourcing Association (BOA), said in its 2019 Annual Industry Report.
The report comprises data about 583 Bulgarian companies engaged in business process sourcing (BPO) and information technology sourcing (ITO).
"The industry is growing substantially faster than the national economy," AIBEST said.
"The Bulgarian sourcing providers performed impressively as the industry's growth rate in 2018 reached 19.5%, compared to 15.8% forecast in the last year's edition of our report."
Outsourcing services providers in Bulgaria employed 66,565 people full-time at the end of 2018, compared to 60,600 at the end of 2017. By 2022, the number of employees is expected to reach 80,000.
Outsourcing generated 8.5% of the total salary costs in Bulgaria last year, up from 8.1% in 2017, as this share is expected to grow further by 2022.
The market in Bulgaria is divided almost equally between BPO and ITO companies - ITO has 293 representatives or just three more than than the BPO number. In terms of operating revenue, however, BPO leads as it accounts for 58% of the total sum in 2018.
The foreign customer base of Bulgaria's outsourcing providers is mostly dominated by clients from Western Europe, the UK and the US as the main overseas market.