Leading independent research and advisory firm Government Insights, an IDC company, has announced the release of its annual Top 10 Predictions report for the government sector in 2008 in the Asia/Pacific region, excluding Japan (APEJ). The report is entitled "Asia/Pacific Government 2008 Top 10 Predictions, January 2008.
"IT spending in the APEJ public sector is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.9% to reach US$32.77 billion by 2011. Developing countries like the People's Republic of China (PRC) and India are both expected to achieve double-digit CAGR of10.2% and 17.6% respectively and will account for more than half of the region's total IT spending. The PRC and India will continue to lead the growth in the region as they have been building up their information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure to increase outreach to their citizens, especially in the rural areas. We note that digital divide issues in the APEJ will increasingly be tackled with an all-stakeholder approach towards digital empowerment," says Raphael Phang, Research Director of Government Insights Asia/Pacific. "The undeniable economic benefits from technology are driving governments to further optimize the value of IT investments. In 2008, upcoming next-generation technologies, such as Web 2.0, virtualization, mobile technologies, and biometrics, will take center-stage."
Other top predictions presented and analyzed in this study are:
Infrastructure optimization and IT resource repurposing will pick up steam with virtualization and consolidation strategies;
Next-generation applications will take e-government in a new direction. The emergence of "Gov 2.0" will replace "e-Gov" as governments seek to gain additional value from citizen interaction and business transactions;
Governments will extend ICTs to safeguard the nation, and boost citizenry protection, while striving to address privacy concerns. Technologies for disaster recovery efforts, citizenry surveillance and biometrics will be in focus;
Strategic IT sourcing will emerge as a key procurement method. More governments will deploy strategic sourcing strategies to evaluate less clear decisions and manage multi-jurisdictional or multi-stakeholder engagements.