Now is definitely a good time to be an IT pro at an SMB in Indonesia, Malaysia or Singapore. According to a study by AMI-Partners, SMBs in the 10 countries that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will invest $12.5 billion (U.S.) in IT infrastructure this year, a 17% increase over 2006 spending. 

In particular, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore will see the highest gains in their SMB IT spending in 2007, with increases over last year’s budgets of 19%, 14% and 8%, respectively. 

In a press release, AMI-Partners analyst Balaji Sreedhar broke down the specifics, saying, “The bulk of the IT spending for SMBs in Indonesia will be on computing, Internet, security and storage. In Malaysia and Singapore the bulk of the spending will be on computing, Internet and IT services.” 

Unfortunately, the 2007 IT budget forecast for North American SMBs is not as rosy. In February, Forrester Research reported that SMBs there will see “an average budget increase of just 2% over actual spend in 2006,” nearly half of which will go towards hardware and staffing concerns.  

The numbers, however, are somewhat misleading. The IT infrastructure in Southeast Asia is considerably less mature and robust than in North America, greatly increasing the region’s SMB IT spending growth potential. Even so, if AMI’s forecast proves correct, 2007 should see dramatic improvements in ASEAN’s IT infrastructure.