Information and communication technology (ICT) companies in Montenegro with over six thousand employees achieved 602.43 million euros in revenue last year with a net profit of 72.82 million. The gross domestic product (GDP) of Montenegro for 2022 was slightly less than six billion, so the ICT sector has a tenth of the share of the country’s GDP according to revenues.
This is shown by a preliminary analysis of financial results made by ICT Cortex. The analysis shows a significant rise in the ICT sector, so revenues from 2022 are 23 percent higher than the year before, and 41 percent higher than 2019. At the same time, the net profit increased from EUR 49.68 million in 2021 to 46 percent in 2022 and is twice as high as in 2019.
“At the very beginning of the previous decade, in 2012, the total income of the ICT sector amounted to over 124 million euros, which represented almost four percent of the then total GDP. Today, the share of the mentioned area in the Montenegrin economy is at a much higher level. The total revenues of the ICT sector in 2022 amounted to 602 million euros, that is, they reached the level of ten percent of the total GDP.
Based on the facts that we obtained from the analysis, we can conclude that the share of information technologies in the national gross social product has increased by slightly more than six percent in the last ten years, which further testifies to the constant development and increasing importance of the ICT sector in the Montenegrin economy. The ICT industry employs over six thousand people, of which almost three and a half thousand are in the IT domain. This is one of the most promising economic areas in Montenegro, the full potential of which we will only see in the period ahead”, according to the ICT Cortex research.
In the analysis, the ICT sector is structured into three branches: information technology (IT) services and products, telecommunications and trade in computer equipment. According to research, the IT sector in Montenegro last year consisted of 715 companies that actively operate on the local and international market and that employ 3,434 people. Compared to 2021, the number of companies increased by 231, and compared to 2019 by 379, which is an increase of more than 100 percent.
“That speaks volumes about the actuality and accelerated development of the Montenegrin IT sector,” the analysis states.The largest number of companies in the IT sector are engaged in computer programming, consulting activities in the field of information technology, while some more specialized areas, such as publishing computer games and publishing software, are represented in a much smaller number. Last year, they achieved total revenues of 209 million and a profit of 46.36 million euros.
“Total revenues, compared to 2021, have increased by 45 percent, the net result is higher by as much as 87 percent, while the same parameter compared to 2019 has increased by as much as 450 percent. The fact that the number of employees adequately follows the growth of realized income is also shown by the fact that over 3,400 workers are employed in the field of IT products and services, which is 61 percent more than it was the case in the previous year, while compared to the situation of four years ago, that number increased by as much as 161 percent.
If we look at the narrowest specialization, the largest number of companies are engaged in computer programming activities and consulting activities in the field of information technology, and some of them that have achieved the highest results are Epam Systems Montenegro, Domen, Data Design, Čikom, Logate”, the analysis reads.
Revenues of 66 telecommunication companies operating on the Montenegrin market achieved last year’s revenue of 266 million with a profit of 20 million, which are the results at the level of 2021. Interestingly, the net profit in 2019 was 24 million, 17 percent more than last year.
“Over 60 percent of companies are registered under the code “other telecommunications activities”, while a smaller number of them deal with satellite and wireless communications, as well as cable telecommunications. The growth in the number of companies compared to the period four years ago is only 1.5 percent, from which we can conclude that the telecommunications sector is fairly constant and that there are not too many changes in the number of companies in the previous period, which is an average of 64.
The best results in three traditional telecommunication providers operating in our market, namely M-tel, Crnogorski telekom and ONE, achieved significant results in this area, while significant results were also achieved by companies such as Telemach, Ericsson AB, Agency for Electronic Communications and Postal Services, Network Communication”, says the analysis.
The total number of employees in this sector is 1,973, of which 65 percent are employed in three leading companies from the telecommunications sector. “That number is almost 14 percent higher than in 2019.” When it comes to the sector related to the trade in computer equipment in 2022, the revenue of almost 121 million was realized, which is a third more than it was the case in the previous year.
“If we make a comparison with 2019, that result increased by 54 percent, while the net income for the same period increased by 107 percent, and now amounts to almost six million euros,” stated ICT Cortex.
The largest number of companies is dominantly engaged in the wholesale trade of computers and their equipment and software, while a smaller number is focused on the retail trade of telecommunications equipment, audio and video equipment, as well as the wholesale trade of electronic and telecommunication parts.
“The number of employees in this sector increased by 16 percent in the previous year and now amounts to 664, which is a significant improvement, especially when we compare this segment with the situation in 2019, when this number was 492. Some of the companies in this area, which achieved the most significant results in the previous period are Comtrade, KimTec, EWE Montenegro”, it is stated.
With these results, as stated in the document, Montenegro has become an important country for investments in the field of information technology, more than an attractive destination for digital nomads, and for this reason, the ICT field certainly deserves special attention from state institutions and the non-governmental sector.
