Spend on IT in Singapore slower than regional average

Governments and government organisations within the Asia pacific region, excluding Japan (APEJ) are expected to spend steadily on IT services and products with a CAGR of 7.9% from 2007-2011, said an industry survey by Government Insights.

The growth is largely driven by China and India, which together account for more than half of the total.

The study also predicts overall IT spend by broad segments to be largely driven by hardware, although a slight decline is expected in this expenditure from 67.5% in 2007 to 54% in 2011. Spend on services is expected to increase steadily with a similar trend for software expenditure during the period.

In Singapore, government spending on IT is expected to rack up a CAGR of 2.6%, lower than the regional average. According to local media citing market watchers, the slower growth is due to the relative maturity of IT adoption, as well as Singapore's comparatively smaller population size.

In spite of this, Singapore is forecast to spend US$957 million by 2011, up from the US$900 million this year. The figure still pales to the China forecast of US$12 billion by 2011.

Having already invested in hardware, the Singapore government is expected to spend more on software and IT services, including a S$1.5 billion project for a standard operating infocomm system.