Final Word from Thursday, January 4, 2007
Helena Steinerová of Accenture told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that she faced no resentment from German colleagues when she was sent to help move an outsourcing account to the CR. The FAZ painted a rosy picture of Prague as an outsourcing capital, thanks to all the educated, polyglot young Czechs willing to start at E1,000 per month. Rising wages due to Prague's success were the only blemish. SAP's shared-services center could hire five Czechs for the cost of one German in 2004, but only 3.5 today. EU expansion will relieve some of the wage pressure by allowing more educated, polyglot young Bulgarians and Romanians to find work in Prague. Czech workers might initially suffer from the wage competition. In the mid-term, though, Czechs should be happy that Bulgarians and Romanians are helping to extend Prague's reign as an outsourcing and offshoring mecca.[Czech Republic European Union enlargement]