China's market for enterprise software including CRM is set to emerge as the largest in the Asia-Pacific region, according to new research.

The report from Springboard Research estimated the Chinese enterprise software market could reach US$9.4 billion by 2012, growing at a compound annual rate of 18%. Michael Barnes, vice president of software research at Springboard, said the enterprise software growth is driven by a combination of strong, on-going economic growth and a relatively low software adoption rate.

Barnes said Springboard expects growth rates across most categories such as CRM, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain management to "far outpace" regional averages for the next three to four years. While existing software investments are concentrated in local offices of foreign companies and internationally-focused Chinese companies, the market is expanding to other sectors, led by banking and state-owned enterprises, Barnes added in the report.