An international information consultancy firm has forecast that Taiwan’s software market for information security and enterprise resource management products will grow this year.
International Data Corp (IDC) said in a report that Taiwan’s information security market would grow by 7.5 percent this year to NT$1.74 billion (US$54 million).
After shrinking for 18 months, the information security market began to recover in the second half of last year, as both the private and public sectors resumed their ordinary spending in this regard, the report said.
With the enactment of the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法), which specifies tighter protection of personal information, the market should expand at a rapid pace, IDC said.
Local enterprises have been trying to beef up information security in the last few years but their efforts have been restricted by tight budgets.
However, they will spend more to tighten security of their information data systems, as the new act imposes heavy civil liability and criminal punishment on owners of enterprises that allow leakage of information, IDC said.
This will benefit software, hardware and service suppliers, the report said.
IDC also predicted an increase in demand for enterprise resource management software over the next few years.
The market for this software should grow by 8.9 percent annually from this year to 2014, the report said, because some locally made software will have to be updated when the Republic of China (ROC) turns 100 next year, to make the change from two digits to three in the display of dates on the ROC calendar.
Another factor is that the country is poised to bring its financial reporting system for public listed companies in line with international practices in 2013 and expand the policy to all companies by 2015.
This will force local business to alter their financial booking systems, IDC said.
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