Indonesia Leads

Indonesia Leads Southeast Asia in IT Spending

by Enricko Lukman

International Data Corporation (IDC) has recently published a new study regarding Information Technology spending around the world. Interestingly, Indonesia’s spending was the largest in the Southeast Asia region and is ranked 19th in the world, with a predicted year-on-year growth of 18.3 percent. Most of the country’s IT spending is on hardware, reaching $11.5 billion in 2011, and it is predicted to rise to $17.8 billion by 2016. IDC analyst Roger Ling, when speaking to The Jakarta Post, pointed out that “a confluence of factors” of IT related spending by Indonesia’s private and public sectors both played key roles in helping Indonesia reaching the rank of world’s 19th.

He adds: Looking inward, it is clear that the government is stepping up efforts to drive the local economy, leading to the strong entrance of foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country Meanwhile, Thailand is predicted to leapfrog Singapore this year for the second spot in IT spending in Southeast Asia, bouncing back after the recent flood crisis that hit the country’s business activities. Thailand is projected to spend $11 billion on IT this year while Singapore is expected to spend $10.6 billion. IDC believes that there are two key areas to Thailand’s IT spending.

The first is the public’s demand for smartphones, reaching as high as 76 percent annual revenue growth in 2011, reaching over $1.5 billion. The second is the healthy growth of the IT services market in the country. IDC projects that from the period of 2012 to 2015, Thailand’s consumption of IT services is projected to run off ahead of the rest of the region.

[Source: IDC via The Jakarta Post]