82% of ICT companies expect growth in 2010

Expected growth is between 5 to 20 percent with 70% of respondents indicating there will be continued or increased expansion into overseas markets.

The survey, conducted by the Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF), revealed the business outlook for Singapore's ICT industry is cautiously optimistic.

The top business concern is recruiting and retaining talent, with 68 percent of respondents saying they expect starting salaries to increase in a bid to attract talent.

Of the different strategic technologies for the Singapore ICT industry, cloud computing ranked first when respondents were asked which key technology will impact CIOs in 2010. Almost 60 percent of the poll participants indicated cloud computing as the top strategic technology, followed by mobile applications, software-as-a-service, virtualisation and green IT in oder of ranking.

Ms Tan Yen Yen, Chairman of SiTF, said, "The ICT sector will continue to be a strategic pillar as Singapore shifts towards a high-value and knowledge-based economy, which is supported by various initiatives such as Productivity and Innovation Credit and skills upgrading in Singapore Budget 2010."

100 respondents were polled for the survey in February, 82 from infocomm Local Enterprises and 18 from multinational companies.