News South Asia

Salary of IT experts to grow by 8.2%

KUALA LUMPUR: The National Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Association of Malaysia, Pikom, projects the average monthly salary for ICT professionals this year to grow 8.2% to RM7,776 from RM7,152 last year. 

Its chairman, Cheah Kok Hoong, said the increase in the salary augurs well for the industry as it is above the latest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth and inflation rate of 5.5% and 3.5% respectively.

“Given the positive local economic growth outlook, I believe the transition of the current sales and services tax to the goods and services tax (GST) is only a phase,” Cheah told a media session after a presentation on the Pikom ICT Job Market Outlook 2014.

Cheah said the imminent implementation of the new tax will also provide an impetus to the industry this year and the next, as organisations rush to replace and upgrade their systems to comply with the requirements, resulting in a demand for software developers.

The association also raised its concerns over the brain drain in the industry, saying the supply of ICT graduates is declining.

Pikom revealed that there were 119,000 students enrolled in ICT courses in 2002 with 53,000 of them graduating, but in 2012 both figures fell drastically to 80,000 and 19,500 respectively.

“If this continues, it can potentially impact the national agenda under the 10th Malaysia Plan, which aims to boost the percentage of skilled workers to 33% by next year.

“We need to address this issue if we want to turn Malaysia into a high-income economy,” Cheah added. – Bernama