Strong growth in the high-tech sector in China and India will help the Asia-Pacific region replace North America within the next two years as the region with the most computer programs, an industry monitor said yesterday.
North America was the region with the most developers in 2001, followed by the Asia-Pacific, which dislodged Europe from the No 2 slot.
Strong growth in China and India will propel the region to the top of the list in 2005, said the report from the International Data Corp (IDC).
Asia, particularly India, is a key source of professionals for the information technology (IT) industry in North America.
"Growth is expected to be much stronger in (the) Asia-Pacific than in North America over the next five years, particularly in the world's largest countries, China and India," the IDC said.
There were 7.8 million IT developers in 2001 and the figure is projected to rise to 13.3 million by 2006, the IDC said.
Asia had 1.7 million developers at the end of 2001, it said.
The drop in the number of IT professionals in North America was also partly due to the slump in the technology sector there, said the report.
"The growth in the number of worldwide developers has been affected dramatically by the economic downturn and actually caused a decline in the number of employed professional developers in North America from 2000 to 2001," the report revealed.
"This comes as no surprise since the economic downturn has resulted in extensive layoffs among IT workers," it said.
(China Daily February 25, 2003)
