The association’s chairman Suhanda Wijaya said in Jakarta on Monday personal computer (PC) sales could, for example, increase by 35 percent this year to between 3.6 million and 3.8 million units up from 2.8 million in 2009.

This increase would surpass the average PC sales growth in the world of between 15 percent and 27.5 percent.

“This makes Indonesia the country with the highest ICT sales growth in the Asia and Pacific region,” he said.

Besides the improvement in  people’s purchasing power, the sharp increase in the sales of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) products is also partly explained by the low prevailing penetration rate of ICT products in the country, he said, adding that the penetration rate of the ICT products in Indonesia is only about 4 percent at present, much lower than the comparable figures for neighboring Asian countries.

With this low ICT penetration rate, combined with a rapidly rising Internet penetration rate which is now rising to about 10 percent, the country’s ICT market still has a lot of room for future expansion, he added.

He said that  PC sales in the first quarter of this year had already reached 800,000 units, much more than double from 300,000 in the same period in 2009, which had declined by 25 percent from 400,000 in the first quarter of 2008 partly due to the continuing negative impact of the 2008 financial crisis.

“Sales in 2009 were down due to the psychological effects of the global financial crisis at the end of 2008, which caused stagnancy in sales both in the first and second quarters,” he said.

Suhanda also said the PC market would benefit from the stronger rupiah and the full implementation of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA).

 “Almost 90 percent of ICT products are still imported from China and other Asian countries,” he said, adding that the zero percent import tariffs on goods from China, fully effective since Jan. 1, would now make PC products in the shops even more affordable to Indonesian customers.

The stronger rupiah against the greenback would also make the retail prices of ICT products more affordable in the domestic market, he addedApkomindo has suggested that all ICT product transactions be worked out and denominated in local currency only. “This will increase the sales volume as a result of price stability, thus attracting foreign investors to make their investments in the country,” he said.

At present, traders normally prefer to peg the prices of ICT products to the US dollar to hedge and avoid losses that could occur following any fall in the value of the rupiah against the dollar.

Deputy Trade Minister Mahendra Siregar said that the government was preparing a set of regulations that would promote production of ICT products in the country.

“We have to increase local component content in ICT production in the country,” he added.

Suhanda noted that the use of domestic components in ICT products already exceeded 20 percent, higher than just 10 percent in 2009.  “Yet, it’s still under 30 percent,” he said.

Meanwhile, the vice chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) Anindya Bakrie acknowledged that some ICT producers in other countries were considering relocating their plants to Indonesia due to the rapid growth of the domestic market resulting from the tariff rebalancing introduced by the government.

“They [overseas producers] are seeking opportunities to get closer to customers,” he said. (ebf)

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