FAS touring Eastern Europe for IT recruits

In the lofty, brightly-lit conference room of a gleaming, glass structure in Ljubljana, about 20 young Slovenians are clustered around computer screens, examining flow charts or energetically discussing possible solutions to programming problems. This is Hermes Softlab, a software engineering company that provides software technology for such global giants as Hewlett-Packard and Ericsson.

The company has a staff of more than 500 but the young people in the conference room are not employees; they are local students who are taking part in an information technology summer school under the guidance of mentors provided by Hermes.

"We need the people and we're investing in them. They learn early, they get involved and they don't join another company. We have to fight for the best," said Mr Andrej Kuscer, who helped found the company 10 years ago.

The fight for IT specialists is becoming ever more intense, with the shortage in Western Europe estimated at 600,000, while the US needs a further 850,000 to keep its economy powering ahead. Germany has introduced a Green Card scheme to attract highly skilled foreigners and Berlin's anxiety over the recent spate of right-wing violence in the country is partly on account of the effect it will have on potential recruits.

FAS has been touring central and Eastern Europe in recent months and, although the agency prefers not to speak of "luring" high-tech talent to the Republic, it is promoting the attractions of the State as a place to work.

Importing talent is difficult and expensive, however, and can lead to social tensions as immigrant workers confront racism and xenophobia in their adopted countries. It also creates a damaging brain drain from poorer countries, many of which have invested scarce resources in educating their young people only to see the most gifted disappear as soon as they are trained.

As competition for talent becomes keener, many firms are concluding that it may be more efficient as well as more responsible to employ IT specialists in their country of origin. In Slovenia, few young people want to leave home in any case and Mr Kuscer believes that they are unlikely to be persuaded to go simply on the grounds of salary.

"Salaries here are lower than in the EU but they are growing more rapidly. In the computer business they will converge around the world," he said.

There are still bargains to be found in the region, however, and one software entrepreneur I met in Prague told me that he has discovered some excellent programmers in Romania who charge just $10 an hour (€10.95).

But for many IT firms, cost is less of an issue than the sheer shortage of professionals available to do the work in an efficient and dependable way. Companies like Hermes are eager to step into the breach and Mr Kuscer is training his sights on Irish firms for possible co-operation.

Hermes may have an advantage over its rivals in approaching Irish firms because its chief financial officer is a Corkman - Mr David Buckley - who has lived in Ljubljana for seven years and married a Slovene woman last week. He maintains that the Irish and the Slovenes understand one another easily and that both could benefit from business partnerships.

"In some ways, Slovenia is like Ireland 15 years ago with some of the same problems. But they are a very bright, hard-working people who are determined to become prosperous. In the former Yugoslavia, they made up only 6 per cent of the population but accounted for 25 per cent of GDP," he said.

Slovenia could undoubtedly benefit from foreign investment, the low level of which is one of the few weaknesses of an economic record that has made it the richest of the countries queuing up to join the EU. The trade deficit stands at about $1 billion - almost 6 per cent of GDP - and it is only the steady flow of tourists to the picturesque, Alpine republic that keeps the current account deficit in check.

A general election on October 15th could provide a trigger for a fresh wave of reforms, including the privatisation of banks and utilities and an overhaul of the pensions system. But as one of the young participants in the Hermes summer school told me, it would take an economic cataclysm to persuade many Slovenes, even the most highly skilled, to consider emigration.

"All my friends are here and I wouldn't think about leaving them, not even for a year. "I want to work in the software industry but I want to work here and that's what I'm going to do," he said.