Recruiters operating overseas have to be careful of some legal technicalities, leading figures in the industry have warned.

Sharing their experiences at a breakfast seminar at the Forum of Professional Recruiters last month, they noted that earning money purely from recruitment is technically illegal in some countries.

Dubai was a case in point, noted Vedior director Brian Wilkinson, at the seminar entitled Recruitment in Asia and the Emerging Markets. It is not possible to obtain a licence purely for recruitment. Instead, companies must obtain a licence for HR functions, which include recruitment.

Uzair Bawany, managing director of finance and IT specialist Contact Recruitment, which is looking to open an office in Dubai, said: "If you have an HR licence, they turn a blind eye."

Wilkinson freely admitted that not all the company's experiences in the emerging markets have been positive. Its strategy in countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and China has been to grow by acquisition. Referring to deals where the company had made small acquisitions of one to two offices in a country, he said: "We'd probably have a different strategy if we were doing it again."

Tony Goodwin pointed to massive opportunities in Russia. He founded Antal Recruitment in 1993. The firm now has 75 fee-earners there. Antal specialises in accounting, banking and IT staff . He said: "We've used the Robert Walters/Michael Page model."

Goodwin said Russians paid more promptly than Western clients. "The average debtor days for Russia is 19, compared with 120 in the West." He said the Russian market and economy was easier to understand than those in some emerging markets, notably China. "It's largely driven by oil and gas."

However, he said his own company's faster growth was in the retail sector, where he had provided staff for companies such as B&Q moving into Russia. Apart from Antal's usual specialist areas, the firm has also recruited store managers.

Bawany said headhunters were "having a field day" in India, with salaries approaching western levels.

However, he warned that commissions were being kept low by intense competition. "We're looking at an average of about 10.75%. If we ask for anything higher, they'll walk away."

He added that candidates in India were in the habit of not showing up for their first day at a new job, as they had multiple offers.

But he said India had proven to be a good area for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), or back-office operations, as labour costs for such activities were much lower than in the UK. Wilkinson also said BPO in India had reduced costs for Vedior.