Software will drive IT market growth
Thailand's IT market outlook for 2007 is forecast to grow by 13.2 per cent to Bt148.82 billion this year, of which software will see the highest growth at 17.8 per cent followed by computer service at 15 per cent and hardware at 9.1 per cent.
This is the first year in which the software market represents the largest portion of the IT market, at 45.7 per cent. Hardware accounts for 43.5 per cent and services 10.8 per cent. The software market this year is expected to earn Bt62.18 billion, up from Bt52.76 billion last year. Avudh Ploysongsang, president of the Software Industry Promotion Agency (Sipa), said the Thailand ICT Market Survey 2006 & Outlook 2007 report was researched by the National Electronic and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec) and sponsored by Sipa. "Even though many government agencies and large enterprises are slowing down or giving up large investments in IT, the whole IT market is still growing, especially the software market. This is because they realise that software is a valuable tool for speeding up business advantages. It seems they can slow down investment in hardware but cannot do the same with software," said Avudh. However, it is expected that the whole software industry will grow by 20 per cent by next year as the country's economy will improve in terms of investment atmosphere and will be more stable by the year's end. Of the software market's Bt62.18 billion earnings, around 80 per cent is derived from imported software while only 20 per cent is from local software development. The total software market consists of five categories including enterprise software, mobile applications, embedded software and animation, of which 84 per cent is enterprise software. Avudh said the agency planned to encourage local software companies to export their products, initially to the Asian market, and to focus on enterprise (healthcare, banking and financial) and animation software. Later, it will gear up to other markets and expand to embedded software. Software exports last year were Bt2.89 billion, but the agency will this year aggressively aim for an increase to Bt3 billion before moving forward to Bt6 billion next year. About 60 per cent of software spending last year was by the enterprise sector, with 29 per cent coming from the government and 11 per cent from households and small offices or home offices.
Asina Pornwasin The Nation
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