{"id":20874,"date":"2012-08-29T17:25:54","date_gmt":"2012-08-29T15:25:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=20874"},"modified":"2012-08-29T18:16:23","modified_gmt":"2012-08-29T16:16:23","slug":"gartner-warns-against-overbearing-govt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/telecommunications\/20874\/gartner-warns-against-overbearing-govt\/","title":{"rendered":"Gartner warns against overbearing govt."},"content":{"rendered":"

Technology research and advisory firm, Gartner<\/a> has cautioned against continued extensive government ownership and overbearing presence of state owned enterprises (SOEs) in South Africa, if the country is to maximise its opportunities as a member of BRICS.<\/p>\n

BRICS is an association of leading emerging economies, arising out of the inclusion of South Africa into the group in 2010, and includes Brazil, Russia, India, and China.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the 2012 Gartner Symposium in Cape Town on Tuesday (28 August), analyst Partha Iyengar<\/a> said that governments and SOEs were not as agile in adapting and changing to market conditions, especially in places where it had no business being there in the first place.<\/p>\n

In terms of where South Africa was in its evolution this was a significant challenge that needed to be overcome, Iyengar said.<\/p>\n

He noted that SA was not alone, with China facing the same problem<\/p>\n

He said that its BRIC status should ensure increasing M&A by global IT enterprises into SA.<\/p>\n

According to MD of Gartner Africa, Rene Jacobs, 75% of CEOs will investigate opportunities with BRICS countries. She added that emerging markets had greater relevance for developed markets.<\/p>\n

\u201cIT innovation has been one of the biggest drivers of economic growth over the last 30 years,\u201d the Africa lead told the audience in her opening address.<\/p>\n

Economic growth<\/strong><\/p>\n

Iyengar said that the BRICS alliance would enhance economic growth in SA, but it would also give rise to significant challenges. He added that, while a lot has happened, a lot more needed to happen and this is where the opportunity for SA could lie.<\/p>\n

The analyst noted that the global economy was emerging from a \u201charrowing\u201d environment. He continued, saying that many still suspected that economic challenges would continue.<\/p>\n

However, data suggested that the longer term economic outlook was not as bleak. Iyengar opined that it was imperative for SA is to focus on that longer term future, to create a platform from which to leverage future growth.<\/p>\n

According to Gartner, the focus on SA as a destination had increased dramatically, particularly from other BRIC countries.<\/p>\n

Iyengar said that most countries would kill to have South Africa\u2019s demographic pyramid, with a strong working age mix, and good male to female ratio split.<\/p>\n

He said that a project like SKA could be used to develop skills, which remains a big barrier to real progress in the tech space in the country. Retention of a skilled workforce, particularly in the areas of engineering and technology was a big stumbling block.<\/p>\n

The analyst maintained that the battle for the 21st century would be about access to a skilled workforce.<\/p>\n

SA offshoring<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Gartner estimates that South Africa\u2019s offshoring sector is estimated to bring around 40,000 new jobs in the year 2015.<\/p>\n

Iyengar said that employees in the offshore contact centre industry stood at 8,000 in 2010, but was expected to grow at CAGR of 30% by 2015 to reach 30,000.<\/p>\n

Related article<\/strong><\/p>\n

SKA benefits are rolling in<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

BRICS communications network planned by SA company<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Zuma urges countries to invest in South Africa<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

SA business to take advantage of BRICS: BUSA<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gartner warns against continued extensive government ownership and the overbearing presence of state owned enterprises (SOEs) in South Africa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":13371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[2091,475,26,3958,1540,3957],"class_list":["post-20874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-telecommunications","tag-brics","tag-gartner","tag-headline","tag-offshoring","tag-ska","tag-soes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20874"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20932,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20874\/revisions\/20932"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}