RIGA - Several large international IT companies could appear on Latvia's IT market this year, according to an official with SIA Siemens.
"In connection with accession to the European Union, Latvia will feel the globalization in IT industry more strongly. Large multinational IT companies will arrive on the Latvian market, whereas Latvia's companies will step up their activities on foreign markets," Siemens' marketing manager Vita Ger-harde said.
She said the growing competition and division of market share would continue in the IT sector. She also predicted that the trend whereby large companies and state institutions were outsourcing IT services would strengthen over 2005.
However, not everyone agreed. Andris Anspoks, Latvia's IT and Telecommunications Association vice president, doubted the prediction, saying "all who wanted to be present on the Latvian market have already done so."
Anspoks said Latvia was not an attractive market for the large companies because it is small. "Capacity of Latvia's market is too low, but it has a high degree of national specifics. Companies have to invest as much in development of new products as in the large markets but the return is sizably lower," he said.
At present representations of several large IT companies are operating in Latvia, including Microsoft Latvia, IBM Latvija and others.
