India is leading Asia in the IT outsourcing market, according to new research published this week.

Analysts at Springboard Research revealed this week that the Asia-Pacific IT services market is set to grow by a five-year annual rate of 10.5 per cent, to reach $55.9 billion (£28 billion) by 2011.

Excluding Japan, India will lead this market, which is the fastest growing IT services industry in the world, valued at $37.5 billion (£18.75 billion) in 2007.

Phil Hassey, vice-president of services research at Springboard Research, said: "The markets of interest [in the region] are not just the top four - China, India, Australia and Korea - but [also] emerging ones like Indonesia and Vietnam, which will register significant growth going forward."

According to the report, application hosting - with an annual growth rate of 19.5 per cent between 2007 and 2011 - would register as the fastest growing sector of this market.

Enterprise IT outsourcing, which was the largest IT services market in Asia-Pacific during 2007, is expected to lag behind due to the reluctance of Chinese firms to outsource business.

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