An integral part of the Iberian Peninsula, Portuguese economic activity has long been sustained by strong cultural and economic ties with countries such as Spain (representing overall more than one quarter of commercial exchanges) and Brazil. In spite of a visible will to differentiate itself from Spain, the country remains strongly influenced by Spanish trade policy.

As Portugal is a relatively small market, its ICT market value represents barely 1% of the total EU market. However, GDP expenditure in the sector is around 6% on average, which is relatively high when compared to the top European countries.

Two thirds of the Portuguese ICT channel players are in resale, while 45% are dedicated to reselling as their main activity; the volume of service players has grown to 38%, while only 12% are software publishers. Half of the channel players are located in the capital area of Lisbon; Porto is the second most important area with an 18% presence of channel players. The others are unequally and granularly spread across the remaining Portuguese counties. Only 16% of them act both nationally and internationally on the market. Online sales methods are used by 24% of the channel population and continue to expand.

The hardware market is currently sustained by netbook sales, as is the case in every EU market. Meanwhile, the telecom market has expanded due to both fixed and mobile telephony. SMB firms tend to invest more and more in IT technology. The use of information technology is most apparent in vertical markets such as banking, financial (the most affected by the current crisis) and human resource services, while the building sector has one of the lowest penetration levels. The B2B sector also uses numerous security products and data protection application and services. Eighty percent of SMB companies and 99% of large corporations are reported to have invested in these types of products.

compuBase definition by main activity compuBase coverage (2010) Manufacturer Software publisher Publisher of software for a specific activity Publisher of software for a specific business processI Software solutions integrator (developed by third parties) IT services, software development (hosting, training, etc.) Telecom services (Telecom operator, ISP, etc.) Telecom & network infrastructure integrator IT infrastructure integrator Consulting Reselling to consumers Reselling to businesses (hardware, software, services, etc.) Wholesaler (resale of IT products to resellers) Large assembling company Other ICT related activities 45 21 68 22 31 232 34 13 6 48 56 322 53 - 16 - Statistics on Portugal - compuBase online counting tool - Quotation on the Portuguese database

Distribution players:
TECH DATA LDA; CPCDI; DATABOX INFORMATICA SA; AFINA SISTEMAS INFORMATICOS SA;MICRO ENERGIA INFORMATICA LDA
IT Channel Press & Players:
Computer World Portugal (IMEDIATIC)
Public organisations & Useful Associations:
Associação Portugesa das Empresas de Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicações (APESI) ; Associaçao para a Promoçao de Multimedia em Portugal (APMP)

General Data
• Area: 92,391 km2
• Population: 10.708 million
•HDI (2006): 0.900

Macroeconomic Data
• GDP/capita (est .2009): 15,474€
• GDP/Capita vs. US(2008): 48%
• GDP growth rate (est. 2009): +0.28

OECD: Portugal information
OECD: ICT Statistics
CIA: Portugal information

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