Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from 15 Asia-Pacific countries are expected to invest US$29.7 billion on information-technology (IT) purchases this year, up 12 percent over last year, a research house said yesterday.
"Hardware will continue to be the mainstream expenditure item," Lau Tong-Yen, a senior analyst with IDC Corp, told The Business Times.
Beyond last year, she said services spending will surpass hardware and software, growing 15 percent a year through 2008.
"In the Asia-Pacific region outside of Japan, we expect to see the fastest growth coming from India, at 21 percent a year, and China," at 18 percent between last year and 2008, Lau was quoted as saying.
China has six times more SMEs compared with the 10-member ASEAN region. SMEs from Australia and South Korea will contribute almost a third to Asia's SME IT spending by 2008, IDC said.
Malaysia will likely see 13 percent growth, the highest in the Southeast Asia region, between now and 2008. SMEs in the country are forecast to invest US$1.48 billion on IT in 2008, up from US$806 million last year.
By 2008, SME's in Singapore are expected to spend US$1.39 billion on IT, 4.5 percent growth a year between last year and 2008. Hong Kong-based SMEs are set to grow 4 percent a year during the period with IT spending rising from US$1 billion last year to US$1.2 billion in 2008. IDC's IT spending estimates exclude telecommunications.
New York-based AMI-Partners Inc told The Business Times Asia-Pacific SMEs are likely to spend as much as US$100 billion on IT and telecoms infrastructure this year.
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