China tech spend to hit $147B in 2016

China's spending on technology goods and services is expected to climb 8 percent to reach U$147 billion this year, driven in large by the public sector and businesses' digital transformation efforts.

While the country's GDP growth dropped to its lowest in 25 years, to below 7 percent last year, spending on tech would remain robust in 2016, according to Forrester.

The research firm added that local organisations would continue to implement digital transformation initiatives, pushing investments in business technology up by 25 percent this year to U$11 billion. Expenditure in this segment would account for 16 percent of overall tech spending, with CIOs across all verticals tapping such tools to better understand customers and improve user experience.

Tech spending in the public sector was projected to grow 12 percent to US$30 billion, driven by government-led initiatives in healthcare, education, social services, and across its agencies.

Forecast to be China's biggest tech spender in 2016, the government would be looking to upgrade its central infrastructure and systems for better efficiency and to tap data analytics to enhance citizen services.

According to Forrester, the Chinese central government would launch several "golden projects" this year that would see further investment in data centers and big data. The Guangdong provincial government, for instance, would establish a data coordination bureau to collect and analyse data to improve internal processes.

Local governments would focus its efforts on improving citizen services, such as Beijing, which had partnered Tencent to tap the latter's WeChat messaging platform to deliver information to as well as gather feedback from citizens.

Forrester noted that these initiatives would drive investments in cloud, data analytics, mobile apps, and consulting services to help the government integrate new technologies with legacy systems.