Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 18 February 2008 13:51
Business IT -
Technology
Page 2 of 3
While the BSA’s study shows that the Asia region has much to gain from reductions in PC software piracy, high-piracy emerging economies like China, Russia and India could experience some of the most positive impacts.
The BSA’s study was actually conducted independently by the International Data Corporation (IDC), and notes that the information technology (IT) industry is already a major contributor to Asian economies.
For example, 2007 saw Asian economies spend over US$231 billion on IT goods and services including computers, peripherals, network equipment, packaged software and IT services. That spending supported more than 348,000 IT companies with 5.5 million IT industry employees, and helped generate US$167 billion in IT-related taxes.
Yet the study notes that the “IT sector’s contribution to Asian economies would be even greater if the region’s PC software piracy rate could be lowered by 10% by 2011”.
Such an improvement would add highly skilled jobs to the labour force, support the creation of new companies, lower business risks, and fund government services without a tax increase.
Jeffrey J. Hardee, Vice President and Regional Director, Asia Pacific, BSA said that: “In a global market that already has an installed base of over a billion PCs, it is not too difficult to see that the growth in the Asia Pacific’s IT sector alone has already translated into significant benefits for the region’s economies”.
Hardee continued that: “However, out of an estimated US$21 billion worth of PC software being employed in new computers in the Asia-Pacific region in 2006, US$11.6 billion was deemed to have been pirated. This study clearly shows the huge economic benefits that economies would derive from a ten-point drop in PC software piracy over the course of the next four years.”
The study also reveals some “surprising changes in the global IT landscape that could result from piracy reductions in emerging economies”.
As an example, a 10% reduction in China’s 82% PC software piracy rate could make that nation’s IT workforce the largest in the world within four years, surpassing the number of IT workers in the United States.
The number of IT jobs in China would grow by an additional 355,000 beyond those already projected, bringing the total number of IT jobs in China to almost 3.5 million by 2011. The improvement could increase IT spending growth from 10.3% per year to 13.7$ per year between 2008 and 2011.
So, what about Russia – and what practical advice does the BSA have for Governments wanting to reduce piracy in their regions, enable economic growth, and get their hands on all those juicy tax revenues? Please read onto page 3.
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