Malaysia's ICT Spending To Touch US$8.19 Billion By Year-End

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 9 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's spending on information technology (IT) is expected to touch RM24.65 billion (US$8.19 billion) by year-end, said global market intelligence firm, International Data Corp (IDC). It said this would represent a year-on-year (yoy) growth of 10.1 per cent. Senior research manager (consulting), IDC Asia/Pacific, Sudev Bangah, said RM15.63 billion (US$5.19 billion) would be spent on IT hardware, RM6.31 billion (US$2.09 billion) on packaged software and RM3 billion (US$997 million) on IT services. "The nation's total IT spending last year amounted RM22.55 billion (US$7.50 billion." "The Malaysian government's transformation programme will help spur the IT sector to become a mainstream industry and play a crucial role in the country's progress," he told reporters after a briefing on Information and Communication Technology Outlook here Thursday. IDC forecast IT spending in South-East Asia for the same period to total US$42.3 billion, equal to 13 per cent yoy growth. Meanwhile, research director for Asean, IDC Asia/Pacific, Alan Tong, said the uncertainties in the eurozone debt crisis and the tumultuous United States economy would have a significant bearing on IT spending in South-East Asia this year. However, he said, the increasing awareness on the importance of IT technology in businesses would help neutralise the perspective. "Organisations nowadays are willing to position a large amount of money for IT spending. IT technology will provide a platform to market a new product and service offering as well as to gain feedback," he said. Tong said the adoption of cloud computing in the sub-region was also likely to gain greater momentum this year as non-conventional players were entering the market and offering cloud services to the industry. "With more IT and business services to be delivered via a cloud model, the service providers will reap the benefits in future," he said. -- BERNAMA