WE tend to think of Myanmar’s IT sector – like most industries in the country – as being fairly isolated from the global market. In many instances this is true and the local IT sector has developed much more slowly than in other countries, including neighbouring Thailand and Singapore.
But last year’s financial crisis showed it is not is completely immune from events elsewhere. Since the global economy began its downward spiral in October, computer hardware manufacturers in foreign countries have been forced to look for new markets – like Myanmar – in which to peddle their goods
To stimulate sales, manufacturers lowered prices. This has been most noticeable in LCD monitors, says U Zaw Min Htwe, a director of MNT, which is an authorised distributor for networking products manufacturer D-Link.
He said the price of a 15-inch LCD monitor had dropped from about US$135 in February 2008 to about $95 by February 2009.
“Mostly, we have seen [LCD] monitors decrease in price but other hardware products have also gone down, perhaps about 20 percent or 25pc if you compare to the same time last year. Laptop prices have decreased. Last year, a laptop with a Core2Duo processor sold for about $1700 but they now sell for about $1000,” U Zaw Min Htwe said.
U Myat Soe Win, the managing director of electronics retailer Technoland, said buyers now held the advantage over retailers in the computer hardware market because the market is cool supply is much higher than demand.
“In this market situation, we have to hold a lot of sales promotion programs to attract customers. At my shop, laptops – low end and middle of the range – are the hottest items,” he said.
Another difficulty authorised resellers are facing is the rise of illegal importers. This practice has been on the increase since the onset of the global financial crisis and encouraged by hardware manufacturers abroad.
“Because of this situation we have to compete with the illegal importers by offering competitive prices and better customer services. Computer hardware technology is always changing and improving so we can’t keep the stock in hand for a long time. Now [authorised importers] are having to sell products at lower prices than we think we should,” said U Zaw Min Htwe said.
