Personally I haven't found any noticeable difference in the general quality of technical people that I've worked with be they UK based, Western European, Eastern European, Asian, American or African (aprt from the ones in state run monopolies.
What I have found is that the best results come from where the user and the developer are close together, can work co-operatively and don't have some commercial contract sat between them that neither of them had anything to do with. We seemed to get somewhere near this towards the end of the 90s before people decided that because we could get electronic messages between them then it wouold be a good idea to put thousands of miles between them and plonk them in different time zones and put commercial and cultural barriers in front of them as well. This is also compounded by the introduction of a load of sh*t processes and controls introduced in an attempt to commoditise the whole process.
Still, as far as accountants are concerned, bodies are now per unit cheaper which is OK in their twisted and surreal universe.