Kuala Lumpur: The country's information communication technology (ICT) spending is expected to hit RM44 billion this year, a 10 per cent increase from last year, said chairman of the Association of the computer and multimedia industry of Malaysia (Pikom), David Wong Nan Fay.Apart from an increase in consumer purchase, growth in communications including broadband provision, and outsourcing, the main contributors are also IT-related events such as the major upcoming "World Congress Information Technology (WCIT 2008)" as well as several other events including 14 IT-related events to be held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre this May 18-22.
"WCIT 2008 anchors four other core events and up to eight related events," Wong told Bernama in an interview at the WCIT media open day here today.
The other core events are the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development (UN-GAID), the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO), E-Governance Asia Forum, the International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Terrorism (Impact) Ministerial Summit and the 11th International Advisory Panel (IAP) meeting for MSC Malaysia.
"We are seeing strong growth in consumer purchases. From the Pikom PC Fair itself, the amount of trade has also increased. The exhibitors enjoyed higher sales compared to last year's fair," he said.
"All these are good indicators on the outlook. Other areas we see a strong potential growth is in the communication side, as we see more broadband and WiMax implementation in this country, which would help communication companies to record higher sales," he said.
"Outsourcing is another strong area. Within outsourcing we expect a 30 per cent growth," he added.
He said a short survey conducted by Pikom involving 175 ICT companies in Malaysia also indicated anticipation of good growth for the sector.
"Out of this survey, 70 per cent said the local ICT industry will grow more than 10 per cent, with half of them believing that it may increase more than 20 per cent," he said.
Meanwhile, 54 per cent of the respondents said they would increase their export business by 10 per cent this year.
He also expected local ICT sales to grow at least 10 per cent this year over last year's US$11.4 billion (RM36.3 billion).
"If you look at the figure that has been quoted by World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA), last year our industry has recorded US$11.4 billion sales and this year we expect US$12.8 billion (RM40.7 billion)," he said.
"So we believed very strongly that investment would be able to achieve these growth and WCIT, the event itself would be a great boost to our industry," he added.
WCIT 2008, jointly organised by Pikom and the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), is the flagship event of the Witsa, a consortium of 73 international ICT organisations whose members comprise more than 90 per cent of the global IT market.- Bernama
