He forecasts that the IT market will more and more resemble the telecom services market, where North America's and Europe's market shares are decreasing while the emerging countries' market share is growing rapidly.

In 2006, GDP growth in China will reach 9.2 percent and India's 8.1 percent, he said. In contrast, New Zealand's GDP growth is forecasted to be 2.2 percent, the US will have a GDP growth of 3.2 percent and the EU's GDP will grow only 2.1 percent.

'The growth in the EU is going down, possibly due to lack of investment,' he said. Japan is decreasing slightly by 2.3 percent.

Some of the factors that affect growth in the IT market are availability of talent and the increasing cost of labor, said de Marcillac. China currently has five times as many engineering graduates as the US, he said. The emerging countries also have an advantage in demographics. Twenty-seven percent of the population in emerging countries are between 15 and 29 ' the 'MySpace generation' as de Marcillac calls it ' compared to 18 percent of the population in mature countries. Thirty percent of the population in the emerging countries are under 15, while the equivalent number in mature countries is 15 percent.

'China is the fourth largest economy this year,' said de Marcillac. 'It is the number one high tech exporter. China has overtaken Germany as the third largest telco services market, worth US$72 billion (NZ $115 billion). China is also the sixth largest IT market, worth US$35 billion.'