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Buoyed by a boom in the high-tech sector and a robust
economy, the German telecommunications and IT lobby gave a bullish
outlook on Wednesday on the eve of the industry's biggest fair.
Chancellor Angela Merkel kicked off the event at an opening
ceremony, after the industry group BITKOM forecast 2.0 percent
expansion in the German information technology, telecoms and digital
consumer electronics market this year and next.
"Your sector should remain the engine of innovation for
Germany," she said ahead of the fair's opening day Thursday.
Merkel was joined by Patricia Russo, chief executive of French-US
telecommunications equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent, and Russian
Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Naryshkin, whose country is this year's
CeBIT guest of honour.
Russo said the communications market was being driven by insatiable
consumer demand for blended services.
"(Users) want the ability to watch their favourite TV program,
send instant messages to their friends about the show's latest plot
twist and answer a call from their daughter when she needs to be
picked up from basketball practice -- all at the same time, and on
the same device of their choosing," she said.
At a press conference earlier in the day, BITKOM forecast sector
turnover this year of 149.1 billion euros (196.7 billion dollars)
this year -- tweaking its original prediction of 1.6 percent growth.
"Hardware sales are growing and the top segments of software
and IT services are doing even better than initially assumed,"
BITKOM President Willi Berchtold said.
Last week, the European Information Technology Observatory forecast
a 2.9-percent boost in industry turnover to 668 billion euros this
year, and another 2.9 percent in 2008.
Berchtold said demand for high-speed online connections was fuelling
a healthy share of the growth.
"Broadband Internet, and in particular DSL connections, are the
driving force in the telecommunications market," Berchtold
said, as the business in landline telephone connections has flagged.
In the consumer electronics field, tech-savvy Germans have become
enamoured with flat-screen televisions, with sales expected to surge
18 percent to 4.4 billion euros. Meanwhile turnover for game
consoles is likely to reach 590 million euros -- a 21 percent jump
since last year.
Berchtold said that despite the sunny outlook and the marked
recovery after the Internet bubble burst in 2001, the German market
was still hampered by a lack of qualified personnel.
Some 20,000 jobs in the sector are unfilled, including positions for
software developers, IT consultants, project managers and
distribution specialists.
Half of IT and telecommunications firms said a lack of personnel was
putting the brakes on their growth, leading BITKOM to renew its
demand for an overhaul of the higher education system and more
flexible immigration laws for skilled professionals.
"It is always better to bring specialists into the country than
to export jobs," Berchtold said.
More than 6,000 exhibitors from 77 countries have descended on this
northern German city, and some 450,000 visitors are expected to walk
the cavernous exhibition halls brimming with gleaming gadgets before
the event wraps up March 21.
New advances in phoning on the Internet, mobile high-speed online
connections, next-generation DVD players and mobile navigators were
generating buzz in the run-up to the event.
Microsoft's new operating system, Windows Vista, is also expected to
take centre stage as developers show off new products that make the
most of it.
Television services and roaming charges on mobile phones are two
other hot topics this year as 18 ministers for telecommunications in
the European Union are to gather Thursday on the sidelines of the
fair to hammer out new policy guidelines.
-- AFP
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