China Takes World's Eighth Ranking in Information Expenses

In order to seize an advantageous position in future worldwide competition, companies around the globe have vied to increase their investment in information technology. An investigation report published November 21 shows that in 1999 alone, the capital spent on information and communication technology around the world amounted to US$2,100 billion; the figure is expected to go up 50 percent by 2004.

This survey, conducted by the 41-members"World Information Technology and Service Union", reveals that US spending on high technology reaches the highest figure of US$762 billion, followed by Japan and Germany, US$362 billion and US$139 billion respectively.

The other countries in the top 10 are Britain, France, Italy, Canada, China, Brazil and Australia. Vietnam has seen the fastest increase in the information and communication technology market, about 35 percent in the past seven years. Countries with a growth rate higher than 10 percent are Poland, Colombia, India, Hungary, Romania and Slovenia.

In the opinion of economists, the huge company investment in information technology will certainly promote the global economic growth. Investment in high technology constitutes an important factor for US high-speed economic growth gained at low inflation in the past few years.

According to another research report announced recently by the American International Data Co., the investments made by worldwide companies in information technology this year will total US$1,000 billion, around 40 percent of which will be spent on the purchase of hardware resources and the rest on software and services.

In terms of geographical location, companies in North America are far ahead of others to make an estimated investment of US$470.1 billion this year, nearly half of the total global investment, while companies of Western Europe will invest US$283.5 billion and companies in the Asia-Pacific region about US$166.4 billion, ranking second and third respectively.



By PD Online staff Deng Gang


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