The Asia-Pacific information-technology (IT) market may see surprising 11 percent growth this year despite fears of a US war with Iraq, a study said yesterday.
The market in the region excluding Japan will recover gradually this year and grow to US$81 billion, driven by companies and government undertakings upgrading their information communications infrastructure, said International Data Corp Asia-Pacific.
The telecom-services market is also likely to grow by 11 percent this year to US$137 billion, the study said.
"We expect hardware segments such as PCs, low and mid-range servers, and LAN hardware to rebound in 2003, compared to their weak performance in 2002," said Piyush Singh, IDC's Singapore-based managing director for the region.
While the economic gloom prevails, companies are forecast to move slowly in both services and software development deals.
"The slow and steady transformation towards a services oriented IT market structure will continue," Singh said.
The top Indian services companies will ride the wave of cost-cutting and emerge on the global scene to challenge the incumbents, he said.
Telecoms will be a bright spot.
"The telecoms services industry will continue its growth momentum, driven by deregulation and pent-up demand in the developing countries," Singh said.
Also pushing ahead will be broadband, driven mainly by falling end-user prices, competition and online gaming, the study said.
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