According to the German association for information management, telecommunications and new media (BITKOM), the German high-tech industry looks very optimistically ahead to the year 2008. A recent BITKOM survey revealed that 78% of companies expect more turnover for next year, 16% forecast sales to remain unchanged while just 6% forecast turnover to fall.
The demand from businesses, the government and private clients for sophisticated information and communication systems is said to continue increasing in 2008. According to the survey in question most popular are computers, software and IT services.
Business is going well at the end of 2007 too. In strong demand are currently flat screens, multimedia mobile phones and digital cameras. Also popular are navigation systems and multi-purpose devices as well as software.
According to the survey in question the employment situation has significantly improved in the IT branch in 2007. 56% of those companies interviewed took on new staff and just 5% had to cut jobs. Programming and IT management graduates are particularly sought-after. The survey also revealed that 64% of IT businesses consider the lack of IT experts to impair their business activities. This percentage is the highest since the survey was first conducted in 2001. The employment situation in the telecommunications branch, however, is currently less encouraging given that prices are very much under pressure due to strong competition.
The most important issues in 2008 will be education, immigration and lack of specialists, environmental protection through energy efficiency as well as IT security, online searches and forgery-proof passports. Issues relating to broadcasting, telecommunications and internet law will also have to be discussed in order not to hamper the development in all these fields. 