Indian IT Firms Urged to Capitalize on Latin American Technology Needs

India’s software promotion council, ESC, has advised domestic IT services firms to write software that suits the requirements of the Latin American market. The advisory comes after the Council’s Chairman Vinod Sharma met a group of diplomats from Latin America in the Indian capital New Delhi this week.

Latin America’s IT market is worth about $ 124 billion US and is likely to surge to $ 166 billion US by 2016.  IT spending in the region is twice higher than the global average, the Council says.

“The council will sensitize the IT segment in India to evolve custom-made software products and solutions that suit the requirement of countries in the Latin America. The product/solution profiles which are in demand in Latin America include packages for e-governance, rural electrification and higher education,” Sharma said.

India’s trade with Latin America totaled $31 billion in 2012, with IT services exports accounting for just $565 million. In recent years Indian companies have invested more than $16 billion in various sectors across the region, so the the Council suggests that IT companies ally with fellow-Indian companies in other sectors in order to penetrate deeper into the Latin American market.

A delegation from Latin America will reportedly visit India in the coming days to discuss business deals with Indian IT firms. The delegation will include representatives from countries like Uruguay and Paraguay, but for Indian companies, the main market is Brazil.

The Brazilian government has set aside a staggering $180 billion to bolster the country’s IT infrastructure, and Indian IT companies see this as an opportunity to offset the decreasing demand for their services in the United States.