> This isn't true either in India or most of eastern europe.

It is.

Wage arbitrage doesn't move the needle for offshoring once operating costs come to play, and outsourcing companies like EPAM, WITCH, and others juiced their margins by padding heavily, which further reduced the cost competitiveness of outsourcing without subsidies.

Czechia [0], individual Volvodships along with the federal government in Poland [1], state+center in India [2][3], Ireland [4], Romania [5], and others [6] dated list from KPMG which doesn't include state and local incentives) are all providing subsidies for GCCs now which include a payroll/per-head incentive depending on the amount spent in FDI, along with added additional subsidies per industry (eg. Life sciences GCCs get additional sets of subsidies versus a generic software GCC versus a VFX GCC).

The US has some of the weakest R&D tax incentives globally [6], with no payroll or financing incentives - only Vietnam, Philippines, Peru, and PNG are stingier, which has been a major role for why GCC expansion has been rapidly growing for the past few years.

That said, these incentives are primarily targeted at large employers becuase if you cannot provide at the minimum dozens of jobs, then the cost cannot be recouped over the long term by most subsidies. So mom-and-pop 3 person consultancies are ignored because in most cases they are parasites and large firms interested in opening large dedicated headcount offices are incentivized.

[0] - https://czechinvest.gov.cz/en/For-Investors/Investment-Incen...

[1] - https://assets.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmg/pl/pdf/services/for...

[2] - https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=93f90e07-581d...

[3] - https://inductusgcc.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/INDIAS-GC...

[4] - https://www.idaireland.fr/getmedia/4f70d494-8ec1-4e3d-b5a5-1...

[5] - https://kpmg.com/kpmg-us/content/dam/kpmg/pdf/2021/global-rd...