| Year | 2014-08-06 |
|---|
The country’s software market is expected to grow at a more sluggish pace this year, primarily due to the political strife and economic slowdown, says the Thailand Development Research Institute.
The TDRI forecasts 8.6% growth in the local software sector in 2014 for a market value of 49.6 billion baht, down from 9.9% growth last year.
“The market slowdown is due mainly to the immediate suspension of IT investment projects from state agencies, stemming from the dissolution of the country’s parliament as the caretaker government could not endorse any new investment projects for state enterprises,” said TDRI researcher Saowaruj Rattanakhamfu.
Furthermore, private firms slowed their spending on software and software-related services in the first quarter because of the unfavourable economic picture.
“We believe the local software market value will grow to 49.6 billion baht,” Ms Saowaruj said. “Of the total, software packages will account for 11.69 billion baht and software-related services the remaining 37.86 billion.”
Last year, Thailand’s software market was worth 45.5 billion baht, with 10.6 billion baht coming from software packages and 34.9 billion baht from software services.
The value of Thailand’s software exports increased by 17% to 5.7 billion baht in 2013. Of the total, 54% came from software-related services, 41% from embedded software services and the rest from software packages.
Ms Saowaruj said financial institutions are the top spender on software and software-related services, followed by the government, automotive, telecom and tourism sectors.
The number of workers in the software industry rose by 5.8% to 54,896 last year, mostly through adding programmers and business analytics staff.
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First published: Bangkok Post, August 6, 2014