ABSTRACT
After 2000, several global economic crises hit the world. The most recent one was that initiated by the subprime loan crisis in the USA in 2007. Meanwhile, in South Asia, the information technology (IT) industry was one of the leading export industries of the early twenty-first century. A comparative analysis of the IT industry in Asia is presented in Figs. 7.1–7.5. Despite the fact that a large share of IT service imports is dominated by those countries hit by the global economic crisis, the growth rates of IT exports from the South Asia region after 2000 are persistently high and strong. However, the success or otherwise of the IT industry in South Asia varies by country, as shown in Fig. 7.2. In Bangladesh, IT service exports plunged in 2007. Although a recovery is observed in 2008, the growth rate of the IT service exports in 2008 is not as high as those in previous years. India, on the other hand, is a leading country for the IT industry, as can be seen by the size of its exports within the total IT service exports of South Asia, as represented in Fig. 7.1. In terms of offshore IT services in the global market, India captured more than a half of the share and, in the IT enabled services (ITES) market, its shares reached around 40 percent by 2007, followed by Canada and the Philippines (Sudan et al. 2010). Overall, the top IT firms in the world had grown at around 12 percent annually up to 2007. In South Asia, the average growth rate of the IT service exports is about 25 percent.
