The Romanian IT market will increase by 12% in 2005 compared with last year, according to officials from US software giant Microsoft, who quoted data from a recent survey by researcher IDC.
The same survey shows that the software market will double in size by 2008.
The Romanian software market was worth 84 million dollars last year (68 million euros at the average annual exchange rate), and will amount to 134 million dollars (103.7 million euros) by 2008, says IDC. It is expected to reach 95 million dollars (73 million euros) in 2005.
Growth of the software market will also lead to an increase in the number of jobs in this sector, Microsoft officials say. Software specialists will account for around 43% of total IT sector employees in Romania in 2008.
The Microsoft officials also talked about their presence in Romania, where they say relations with local partners "are going very well".
For every dollar Microsoft makes in Romania, its partners generate 7.71 dollars (5.9 euros) in revenues.
Microsoft has more than 1,300 partners in Romania, both system integrators and resellers. From these partners, approximately 160 enjoy "certified partner" status, Microsoft representatives said.
At the same time they announced the expansion of the "Shared Source" programme whereby Microsoft makes public parts of the source code behind its applications to seven countries in Central and Eastern Europe - Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Slovenia and Slovakia. Three other countries in the region - Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland - were already members of this programme.
Romania and Bulgaria have not been included on this list yet, mainly because they are not yet European Union members, Jason Matusow, head of the "Shared Source Initiative" programme, told Ziarul Financiar.
Microsoft's revealing of source code for certain applications will continue over the next few years, Matusow says. victor@zf.ro
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