Indonesia, Malaysia show strongest tech growth in SE Asia

Indonesia and Malaysia’s tech sectors are showing some serious growth, leading the South East Asia region along with Thailand.

According to research company GfK TEMAX, the three countries turned in overall positive showings in the range of nine to 14 percent.

Indonesia overtook Malaysia for the top spot overall with 14% growth in the latest quarter. The latter’s tech sector growth was nonetheless robust at 10%, while Thailand took third place — its tech sector growing by nine percent over the same period in 2011.

Helping propel Indonesia to top spot is the fact that six out of the seven measured tech segments registered positive growth. Meanwhile, four in seven segments of the Malaysian market generated exponential growth between 11 to 30 percent in the third quarter.

Telecommunications still dominates growth across the region, especially as more and more people pick up mobile devices. At 51%, Singapore’s Telco market boasted the highest growth level attained across the board. Driven by the heightening sales of smartphones, the segment is also experiencing rapid expansion in the developing markets of Thailand and Malaysia, which generated 29 and 26% incremental sales respectively.

“Various technological products such as smartphones and tablets have been experiencing a high level of adoption and they are expected to continue as two of the key sales generators in the TCG [technical consumer goods] market,” said managing director of GfK Asia Stanley Kee. “As we approach the year-end festive period, we can certainly also be anticipating increased consumer spending across many other segments in the countries to close the year on a high.”