* U.S. market registers dynamic growth
* BITKOM points to state's successful regional economic policy
* German-Californian ICT summit to be held at next year's CeBIT
The State of California will be the official Partner State for the German information technology and communications (ICT) sector as well as the CeBIT exhibition in 2009. This was announced by the German BITKOM association and Deutsche Messe on Tuesday.
'The United States is not only an important trading partner,' declared BITKOM President Prof. Dr. August-Wilhelm Scheer, 'but California's Silicon Valley is also a perfect example of successful regional economic policy. We expect our own intensive networking with California to result in a strengthening of our strategy.'
The CeBIT organizers also accorded ICT firms from the Partner State a special status: 'California is the cradle of the international ICT industry. To this day, world-changing trends and innovations are still being developed there,' explained Ernst Raue, Managing Board Member at Deutsche Messe, the company behind CeBIT.
He continued: 'California's special presentation at CeBIT 2009 will demonstrate Silicon Valley's power to innovative.' CeBIT, the world's biggest ICT exhibition, runs from 3 to 8 March 2009 in Hannover, Germany.
The market for IT and telecommunications is growing dynamically in the U.S., with 2007 sales growing by 4.8 percent to reach a total of 663 billion euros. The international market research project EITO expects this growth to continue in 2008 at a rate of just under 5 percent, with overall demand in the American domestic market pegged at 695 billion euros.
This puts the U.S. market just a tad behind the EU, where a market volume of 699 billion euros is anticipated. With over 37 million inhabitants, California is by far the most populous state in the U.S. as well as America's leading economic region. If California were a sovereign nation, its economy would rank number eight in the world.
In a head-on-head comparison of import-export volumes with Germany, the United States is out in front, with ICT hardware exports to Germany totaling around 3.5 billion euros last year, while German hardware exports ran at a total of some 1.6 billion euros. 'We are the world's leading exporter overall,' explained Prof. Scheer, 'but still a net importer in the ICT sector.
We need to become more attractive again as a development and production location.' Scheer underscored his hope that the partnership with California would contribute to developing the right German strategy. In terms of imports and exports of ICT services, Germany and the United States are even, with each nation importing 2.1 billion euros in services from the other.
The Californian ICT industry will be showcased at CeBIT 2009. One key focus will be on environment-friendly technologies ('green IT'), which was already a key topic at the past CeBIT. A German-Californian summit will be a special highlight of the Partner State program in March 2009, featuring presentations and discussion rounds on ways of intensifying mutual cooperation.
'The summit will not only bring together providers and users,' stated BITKOM President Scheer: 'The summit is also there to encourage discussion between business and government about innovations policy and government high-tech strategies.'
The German-American dialog will be continued at a series of specialist forums at CeBIT. 'This is an ideal opportunity for new contacts and networking between companies from both countries,' emphasized Deutsche Messe board member Raue. 'We have had good results with the partner country concept over the past few years. CeBIT has proven an appropriate international platform for facilitating cooperation between ICT industries from different nations
.' The organizers have also scheduled joint conferences and workshops. 'We want to use these as tools to help companies achieve their international goals,' stated BITKOM President Scheer, asserting that small and medium-sized enterprises in particular stood to benefit most from this support.
- Christian Spahr-
More reports from this category all copyright automobilsport.com.
