Romanian IT market, worth $1 bn

A Romanian IT market overview, sometimes hard to conduct in detail because of contradictory information, points to the fact that we have reached a level that is drawing attention to the sector’s great potential: software, hardware and IT services transactions exceed one billion dollars and this field includes at least 100 companies with annual turnover worth more than one million dollars.

Experts also speak of the powerful “two-digit” growth that we will witness this year.

Overall, more than 100 IT companies registered turnovers worth over one million dollars in 2002, as compared to only 80 in the previous year, according to Communications minister Dan Nica.

At this point, over 6,500 companies are competing on a market that was estimated at 1.1 billion dollars for 2003.

“Over the recent years, this segment has increasingly drawn the attention of international companies,” said Dan Nica, who attended the third edition of the Forum on Economy based on Knowledge, organised in Budapest. He expressed his hope that the IT industry would exceed the market analysts’ expectations this year.

The software and IT industry is heading toward 550 million dollars this year, up from more than 450 million dollars last year, according to market analysts.

Outsourcing and software exports seem to register the highest increase (20-30%), while the production of applications aimed at the domestic market will not go beyond a 10% rise this year. The hardware market will reach 680 million dollars, as compared to 650 million dollars in 2003.

The data are confirmed by the European Information Technology Observatory (EITO), the benchmark book of the IT&C industry published by the European Union and partially supported by Romanian organisations operating in this sector (ANIS, etc) and by market experts. dan.dragomir@zf.ro