SOME EVOLUTIONS OF THE ROMANIAN IT MARKET

IT market in Romania registered a positive trend, estimations regarding the evolution for the next period indicating the same trend. This development was implicit in conjunction with the growing interest of population and organizations for getting the economic and social benefits offered by information technology, the expansion of the market and the increasing in the use IT by organizations and population empowering reciprocally. In this context, the contribution of the industry of "Information and communications" has increased in overall macroeconomic indicators and in the total employed population at the national level.


Introduction
"Information and Communication Technology" (ICT) is one of those sectors with huge development potential, this being evidenced by the statistics indicators, and in the same time constituting both development objective of national and European strategies and programs.Thus, the "promotion of the 10 sectors of the future", identified as the economic sectors with the potential of smart development, is one of the priorities set out in National Competitiveness Strategy 2014 -2020.Among the 10 identified sectors is included the "Information and Communication Technology ".As we stated earlier, ICT support is a priority at European level.Thus, under the EU Cohesion Policy for the period 2014 -2020, drafted by the European Commission, represents a necessity directing the investments towards four key areas for economic growth and jobs creation, here including the ICT; achieving the strategic objectives assumes among other things: "Continuing the transition to innovative uses of ICT by businesses, citizens and public administrations, such as the provision of electronic services in health (eHealth), in the public sector (e-government), in SMEs (e-learning, e-business), coordination of resource efficiency in urban areas (Smart Cities) and preservation of cultural heritage through digitization, enhancing digital literacy, elearning, e-inclusion and related entrepreneurial e-skills ".

Contribution of "Information and communications" branch in achieving macroeconomic indicators
According to data for the period 2010-2014, in Romania, the contribution of ICT to macroeconomic indicators (gross added value to the national economy) grew from 4.9% to 6.6%.This increase occurred on a background of positive developments in the total gross added value of all industries, the dynamics registered by "Information and Telecommunications" (+ 58.4% in 2014 compared to 2010), outpacing the average in the national economy (+ 17% in 2014 compared to 2010).(Table 1 and Fig. 1)  Similar to results indicators, the employment in the industry of "Information and communication" has raised during 2010 -2014 by over 20%, which contributed to the growth of this sector in total employment in Romania (from 2% in 2010, to 2.3% in 2014).(Table 2 and Fig. 2)

Sales development in the national IT market
Based on information derived from a study conducted by GfK, sales of IT equipment in recent years (2010 -2014) had an upward trend, in annual average increase being about 8% (Table 3)    The expansion of the IT market can be highlighted based on both economic indicators presented above (gross added value and employment in the branch "Information and communications", sales), and based on indicators confirming the access people and organizations to technology, implicitly reflecting the social dimension of the analyzed sector, highlighting the orientation of the entire society toward computerization.
Referring to the population's access to technology, according to data from Eurostat, in 2014, 60% of the population of 16-74 years used the computer.Although we are far below the European average (79% in EU), it is established that the indicator followed an upward trajectory, so that during the period from 2010 to 2014 there was an increase of over 30%.Subscribing to the same trend, Internet access of households in Romania also increased, from 42% in 2010 to 61% in 2014.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Dynamics of total gross added value in the national economy and in the branch of "Information and Telecommunications" in the period 2010-2014 (% compared to 2010) Source: taken and processed from Eurostat

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Employees in total national economy and in the branch of "Information and communications" in the period 2010-2014 Source: taken and processed from Eurostat

Figure 4 .
Figure 4. Dynamics of turnover of the sector "Manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products" in the period 2010-2014 (% compared to previous year) Source: own processing after Results and performance of enterprises in industry and construction, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, National Institute of Statistics

Figure 5 .
Figure 5. Dynamics of sales of software and IT services in the period 2011 -2014 (% compared to 2011) Source: own computation after Pierre Audoin Consultants

Figure 6 .
Figure 6.Share of people who used the computer in the total population of 16-74 years in Romania and the share of households with Internet access in Romania during 2010-2014 Source: Eurostat

Figure 7 .
Figure 7. Evolution of public expenditure for the purchase of computing equipment and accessories during 2011-2014 Source: Coordinates of living in Romania.Income and consumption, 2011-2014, INS * own processing based on average annual CPI from INS

Figure 8 .
Figure 8.Share of enterprises in Romania in all enterprises (with over 10 employees, excluding the financial sector) that have a computer and had access to the Internet during 2010-2014 Source: Eurostat

Table 1 . Gross added value in the total national economy and in the "Information and communications" branch in the period 2010-2014
Source: taken and processed from Eurostat

Table 2 . Employees in total national economy and in the branch of "Information and communications" in the period 2010-2014
Source: taken and processed from Eurostat

Table 3 . Evolution of IT equipment sales in the period 2008 -2014
Source: own computation from GFK Production of IT equipment fall within NACE division "Manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products".According to Table4there is a decrease in recent years (for which we have official data) of the specific results of this division, which, in the context of increasing sales of IT equipment, highlights the lack of local attractiveness and appropriateness of the activity (production of hardware) compared to other activities related (operating in the same NACE division).

Table 5 . Sales development of software and IT services in the period 2011 -2014
Table no.5) Estimates for the coming years, according to the same sources, indicate market growth up to 3782 mil.Euro in 2018, which basically means an average annual increase of about 12%.