{"id":19568,"date":"2024-12-18T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-18T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/?p=19568"},"modified":"2024-12-18T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-12-18T06:00:00","slug":"from-smokestacks-to-servers-the-promise-of-stara-zagoras-it-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/?p=19568","title":{"rendered":"From smokestacks to servers: The promise of Stara Zagora&#8217;s IT sector"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Stara Zagora is transforming from a coal-mining stronghold into Bulgaria\u2019s emerging IT hub, leveraging its location, cost advantages, skilled workforce, and investor appeal to fuel a new era of tech-driven growth.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stara Zagora in central Bulgaria was once best known for its heavy industry and nearby coal-mining complexes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, however, it is forging a fresh identity as a nascent hub for information technology. Over the past few years, local authorities, private investors and international firms have set their sights on turning the region into one of Bulgaria\u2019s emerging IT outposts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/analysis\/stara-zagoras-renewable-energy-potential\/\">Stara Zagora\u2019s renewable energy potential<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/analysis\/investment-stara-zagora\/\">Fostering innovation, attracting investment: Stara Zagora\u2019s effective development strategy<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/analysis\/how-stara-zagora-can-become-a-leader-in-bulgarias-automotive-revolution\/\">How Stara Zagora can become a leader in Bulgaria\u2019s automotive revolution<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>According to data from the Bulgarian Association of Software Companies, the number of tech firms operating in <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/investment-destination-stara-zagora\/\" target=\"_blank\">Stara Zagora<\/a> has nearly doubled since 2020, while the local IT workforce is growing at a steady clip of around 10-15 per cent per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Such numbers remain small in absolute terms, dwarfed by Sofia, the country\u2019s capital, whose sophisticated software sector drives the bulk of Bulgaria\u2019s IT exports. Yet Stara Zagora\u2019s quiet ascent reflects a wider shift within the country: as digitalisation deepens across Europe, Bulgarian firms and foreign investors alike are looking beyond the capital for lower operating costs and a fresh talent pipeline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Local officials are keen to leverage the region\u2019s well-developed infrastructure\u2014solid rail and road links, reliable digital networks\u2014and its proximity to several major universities churning out computer science graduates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Efforts have also been made to attract angel investors and accelerate the growth of start-ups, notably several development zones, including Zagore and Elenino, where firms benefit from advanced digital infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The attractions for companies eyeing Stara Zagora are clear. Wages remain lower than in Sofia or in more established tech centres like Plovdiv. Office space is affordable: commercial rents in Stara Zagora run about 30-40 per cent below those in the capital, a substantial saving for fledgling enterprises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The region\u2019s cost of living is modest, too, making it easier to retain junior coders who might be deterred by big-city prices. An ecosystem of support services\u2014co-working spaces, IT clusters and small accelerators\u2014has begun to emerge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The growing presence of well-regarded firms in fields from fintech to agricultural software solutions is putting the city and surrounding region on the radar of multinational outfits seeking a bridgehead in south-eastern Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2018Double down on what you do well\u2019<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>David Rumble is a specialist in customer experience, digitisation, outsourcing and multi-shoring who helps IT firms find prime locations. Speaking at an event in Stara Zagora last month, designed to focus attention on the investment potential district, he said that clients once interested in places such as Poland were now asking, \u201cWhere\u2019s next in Eastern Europe?\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhere do we now go next for these technological skills that will support inside EU service delivery? It\u2019s here that Stara Zagora can play a role.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When it comes to how Stara Zagora should position itself, Rumble believes that it should not make the mistake so many other places have, of not looking at things from the buyer\u2019s, or investor\u2019s point of view.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou need to look outwardly,\u201d he says. \u201cHow do I help the talent that I&#8217;ve got locally and put them on an international stage?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He suggests that Stara Zagora can start with boasting a little more about its internet speeds, which are exceptional. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the first things that buyers and investors will look for,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stephen Loynd at TrendzOwl, a market intelligence and advisory firm, agrees. \u201cDouble down on what you do well, focus on the strengths of the region,\u201d he said at the Stara Zagora event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For Elias van Herwaarden, a location strategy expert, one of Stara Zagora\u2019s strengths is its EU location which makes it ideal for nearshoring, a trend that he points out has increased since Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFirms are looking to invest in this part of the world,\u201d he said. \u201cIn difficult times, investors look to the huge, beautiful EU market.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/1732690808741-1024x683.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-91778\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The need for talent<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet Stara Zagora\u2019s promise is hardly guaranteed. The region faces a familiar conundrum for ambitious secondary cities: talent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While Bulgaria\u2019s overall IT workforce is expanding, the best-trained software engineers often gravitate to Sofia, where the career ladder is taller and salaries are fatter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stara Zagora must therefore work harder to convince skilled professionals that it can offer long-term prospects. Some local companies say they struggle to fill mid-level or specialised positions, and they worry about brain-drain towards the capital or abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For IT firms already present in the region however, there is an advantage that Stara Zagora can exploit: quality of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Emerging Europe\u2019s <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/reports\/\" target=\"_blank\">Business-Friendly Cities Perception Report 2024<\/a>, Stara Zagora ranks seventh in the Pool of Talent category and eighth in Infrastructure and Connectivity, as seen by site selection experts and FDI advisors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Additionally, in the geospatial part of the Business-Friendly Cities research, Stara Zagora ranks eighth in the Quality of Life category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe younger generation expect to be well paid,\u201d says Velizar Dimitrov, CTO at Stara Zagora-based eDynamix, which helps automotive retailers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) digitise their customer journeys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSome of them also want a busy life, and those guys head to Sofia. But some don\u2019t want a busy life, they want a good work-life balance, and those people stay in Stara Zagora.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe should be aiming not just to create a labour force here in Stara Zagora, but a highly-skilled labour force.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nurturing talent is therefore a key part of the city\u2019s development agenda, says Zhivko Todorov, Stara Zagora\u2019s mayor, who opened the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe local government is investing in education and training programmes to develop a skilled workforce, crucial for supporting the growth of the renewable energy industry,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur district has a strong tradition in engineering and industrial innovation. This tradition is now being channeled into emerging sectors like renewable energy and IT, thanks to specialised educational institutions and vocational training centers that ensure a steady supply of skilled professionals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For now, Stara Zagora\u2019s shift into IT is encouraging, but its success will depend on balancing cost advantages with a steady flow of skilled workers and fostering a climate hospitable to both international investors and home-grown start-ups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What&#8217;s clear, however, is that the opportunities are there for international IT business process outsourcing and shared service centre operations, as well as in energy and manufacturing, as the region offers evolving IT talent and readily available engineering skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If it can make the most of this, Bulgaria\u2019s rising tech tide will lift not just its capital, but also the fortunes of a city once defined by its smokestacks\u2014and now increasingly defined by its servers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Photo by <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/@aaron1206?utm_content=creditCopyText&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=unsplash\">Aaron McLean<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/a-close-up-of-several-computer-servers-pf7BliMKKxM?utm_content=creditCopyText&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=unsplash\">Unsplash<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\" id=\"block-cbcb00d7-ef4f-4114-be61-31d4f9f78a9a\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This content was produced in collaboration with the municipality of Stara Zagora and the European Commission\u2019s Directorate General for Structural Reform Support.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stara Zagora is transforming from a coal-mining stronghold into Bulgaria\u2019s emerging IT hub, leveraging its location, cost advantages, skilled workforce, and investor appeal to fuel a<span class=\"excerpt-hellip\"> [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[6579,8104,8105,6320,7315,7277,7892,8106,7359,61,7893],"class_list":["post-19568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","tag-bulgaria","tag-david-rumble","tag-edynamix","tag-featured","tag-gbs","tag-outsourcing","tag-stara-zagora","tag-stara-zagora-it-sector","tag-talent","tag-technology-innovation","tag-zhivko-todorov"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}