Russia's attack on Ukraine has put it on the international sidelines - with serious consequences for the domestic digital industry and IT investments. Last year, sales by IT and telecommunications companies in Russia slumped by a quarter (25.1%), and a further decline of 5.6% is expected at this low level in 2023. While sales in 2021 were still at €43.35bn, in 2022 they were only €32.46bn and in 2023 they are expected to be €30.64bn.
"The whole of Russia is thus only the size of Baden-Württemberg in the ICT market", said Bitkom CEO Dr. Bernhard Rohleder, commenting on the new figures. In previous years, the Russian ICT market had regularly grown strongly, even by almost 15% in 2021. This was announced by the digital association Bitkom in Berlin some days ago.
"With the war of aggression on Ukraine, Russia has sent its IT and telecommunications industry on a downward slide. Raw materials were the basis and strong IT was the future hope of the Russian economy. Russia has also made itself a pariah in the digital world and cut off from global innovations. The trend toward Russia's digital dwarfing will continue. Hackers alone are still booming in Russia", says Bitkom CEO Dr. Bernhard Rohleder. "With the exodus of tens of thousands of IT experts, Russia will no longer have the opportunity to connect digitally for the foreseeable future."
According to the latest Bitkom forecast, the global ICT market is expected to grow by 4.8% to €4.33tn in 2023. In the current year, Russia's share of the world ICT market will drop to just 0.8%, down from 1.1% in 2021, compared to 35.7% for the US and 16% for the EU.
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