IT achieves added value record

IT technologies are a motor for growth and employment in the German economy and they promote innovations in other sectors. This is demonstrated by a study by the Federal Association of the IT Industry, Telecommunications and New Media (Bundesverband Informationswirtschaft, Telekommunikation und neue Medien (BITKOM)).

According to current calculations the IT sector earned almost 74 billion Euros in 2005, the highest added value of the classical industry sectors, and thus lay ahead of engineering, the automotive or metal industries. “The IT economy is not just in itself a highly innovative sector,” said BITKOM president Willi Berchtold. “IT technologies also spark off innovation in other sectors.“

This is proven amongst other things by rising IT exports and European patent office registrations: a quarter of all patents now come from the IT sector. “Compared internationally Germany holds a good but not leading position”, said Berchtold. “It requires some effort by politics, science and the economy to reach the very front in important high-tech sectors.” A key factor for the development of the high-tech industry are the user sectors.

Spending on IT in the health, finance and automotive sectors will rise, according to the study, by around 4 percent in 2007 and 2008 respectively. With sustained positive development in the user sectors and assuming favourable political conditions, the IT market in Germany can grow by 3 percent a year to 164 billion Euros by the year 2010 according to the BITKOM study.