According to figures released by the Economic Development Board (EDB) yesterday, IT investments in 2003 dropped to S$623 million (US$368 million) from S$846 (US$368 million) a year earlier.
Marred by the events such as the US-Iraq war and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome outbreak which dented the country economic performance, the wane did not come as much of a surprise.
Despite experiencing the third successive year of investment decline, the EDB said it still managed to attract a number of major IT projects last year. This include Cisco's establishment of its S$68 million (US$40 million) advanced networking research and testing facility in Singapore, NEC’s decision to set up its regional headquarters here, as well as the conference of International headquarters status to the local office of Indian IT giant Tata Consultancy Services.
In line with projections of five percent growth in the global technology sector, the EDB expects a rosier outlook this year.
"Business was tough last year, but we are very optimistic that this year, business will pick up," said Quek Swee Kuan, EDB's director for the info-communications and media cluster. At the bare minimum, he said IT investments in the republic in 2004 should match last year's figures.
Based on ongoing discussions, Quek said a number of IT companies are keen to invest this year.
In particular, the EDB sees immense potential for Singapore in areas such as the creation of digital media content including movies, animation and computer games. Citing analyst statistics, Quek said that the games and animation industry is worth US$70 billion currently and will continue to grow at a furious pace.
The global outsourcing phenomenon is another trend that Singapore is expected to latch onto this year. Research firm Gartner Dataquest has projected a worldwide shared services and BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) market growth at 10 percent to US$173 billion for 2004.
To tap into this market, the EDB will continue to promote Singapore as an ideal outsourcing destination and shared IT services as such as disaster recovery. For example, EBD said business software maker SAP unveiled its regional Shared Services Center in the republic last year to centralize common business activities such as marketing and human resource. In addition, computer giant IBM also anchored its disaster recovery center in Singapore, it added.
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