The future prospects of the nation's IT industry are high as export items have continued to be diversified, along with limited but visible results, to include such items as LCD panels, storage devices, digital TVs and next-generation batteries following such traditional mainstay items as mobile phones and semiconductors. On the other hand, IT exports' dependence on major markets, such as China, the EU and the United States, have grown ever stronger. This may be an inevitable phenomenon as IT exports depend heavily on market size. However, since the nation's exports could fluctuate sharply according to market conditions in regions where most of the nation's IT exports are made -- as was shown vividly in the rising value of the Korean won and subsequent worsening of profitability -- the regional diversification of exports through the opening of promising new markets such as Brazil, Russia, India and China, the emerging BRICs, is badly needed. Again this backdrop, the Institute of Information Technology Assessment (IITA) has published the 'IT Guide Book 2005' in order to elevate the understanding of IT industries and market circumstances in a total of 40 nations, particularly centering around major export destinations and countries that could act as a market base for future growth in exports, thus ultimately assisting the nation's stable growth in IT exports.