India’s small and medium-sized firms are predicted to increase their expenditures on information technology upgrades by 20 per cent in 2008, a recent study said on Monday.

Banking, financial services and manufacturing were cited as driving the growth in the businesses’ spending in India, said US-based Access Market International (AMI) Partners Inc, which defines small and medium-sized businesses as commercial enterprises with a maximum of 1,000 employees.

Asia Pacific region

India will be the fastest growing major market with IT spending set to increase more than 20 per cent in 2008 to $9.6 billion, Nishant Dave, Singapore-based research director, was quoted as saying by The Business Times.

According to the AMI study, the IT expenditure of small and medium-sized businesses in the Asia Pacific region is predicted to touch $95.8 billion in 2008 with India, China, South Korea and Australia leading the pack.

The predicted amount is 14 per cent higher than that of last year, AMI said, adding that combined spending of China, India, South Korea and Australia is forecast to account for more than 70 per cent of total IT spending in the region.

Overall, 2008 is expected to be a strong growth year for IT investments of businesses in the region, offering new opportunities for IT vendors, suppliers and service providers, Mr Dave told.

Nearly 36 per cent of IT spending by medium-sized businesses will be on computing hardware, AMI said.Another 30 per cent will be spent on IT services.