Country Competitiveness / Needed Actions & Players

Capability Creativity Maturity Moldova ICT Summit 2011 Empowering Development through Information TechnologyGeorge BRASHNAROV Country IT BrandingVice President, PIN-SME Important Players and Activities Chairman, BASSCOM 19 May 2011 Chisinau, Moldova

Important factors 1/21: Globalization 3.0 2: “Demographic” change

Important factors 2/23: Mass collaboration & Social networks

Why is a Country Brand important?The Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands Index( “Places”, © Simon Anholt 2010 ) … The way a country is perceived can make a critical difference to the success of its business, trade and tourism efforts, as well as its diplomatic and cultural relations with other nations….The effect of national brand image is plain to see. Countries that are lucky or virtuous enough to have acquired a positive reputation find that everything they, their companies or citizens wish to do on the global stage is easier: their brand goes before them, opening doors, creating trust and respect, and raising the expectation of quality, competence and integrity. Places with reputation for being poor, uncultured, backward, dangerous or corrupt find that everything they or their companies try to achieve outside their own neighborhood is harder, and the burden is always on their side to prove that they don’t conform to the national stereotype.

Why is a Country Brand important?The Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands Index( “Places”, © Simon Anholt 2010 ) Compare :• The experience of a Swedish and an Iranian manager on the international job market…• The struggles of an exporter from Moldova with one from Canada…• The way consumers from Europe or America will pay more for unknown “Japanese” product than for an identical “Korean“ product…that is probably made in the same Chinese factory

How is Moldova positioned compared to other countries from the region? WEF GCR GCR WEF eGov E-participation index innovation GITR development Rank (value) Rank Rank (value) Rank Rank (value) (value) (value)Albania 88(3,94) 121(2,57) 95(3,27) 85(0.4519) 86(0.1286)Armenia 98(3,76) 116(2,63) 101(3,20) 110(0.4025) 135(0.0429)Azerbaijan 57(4,29) 61(3,16) 64(3,75) 83(0.4571) 68(0.1714)BiH 102(3,70) 120(2,59) 110(3,07) 74(0.4698) 135(0.0429)Georgia 93(3,86) 125(2,51) 93(3,38) 100(0,4248) 127(0,0571)Macedonia 79(4,02) 97(2,88) 73(3,64) 52(0.5261) 55(0.2143)Moldova 94(3,86) 129(2,49) n/a 80(0.4611) 58(0.2000)Montenegro 49(4,36) 45(3,48) 42(4,10) 60(0.5101) 76(0.1571)Romania 67(4,16) 87(2,94) 59(3,80) 47(0,5479) 64(0,1857)Serbia 96(3,84) 88(2,93) 84(3,51) 81(0.4585) 135(0.0429)Ukraine 89(3,90) 63(3,11) 82(3,53) 54(0.5181) 48(0.2571) Sources: http://www.worldbank.org/; http://gcr.weforum.org/gcr2010/ ; http://www.networkedreadiness.com/gitr/; http://www2.unpan.org/egovkb/global_reports/10report.htm;

Why is a Country Brand important?The Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands Index( “Places”, © Simon Anholt 2010 ) Conclusion : Countries have their brand images which are critical to their success in the modern global economy Problem : Replacing BRAND with BRANDING Governments having big enough marketing budgets and hiring the best marketing and branding agencies are just having WRONG expectations to create/alter national image by simple mar-com campaigns

Country Brand MeasuringThe Anholt-GfKRoper Nation Brands Index

Country Competitive Advantages

What to do ? Whilst governments cannot hope to manipulate the perceptions of millions of people in other countries, there are three important things that they can do about their national reputation:1. To understand and monitor their international image, in the countries and sectors where it matters most to them.2. To collaborate imaginatively, effectively and openly with business and civil society and to agree on a national strategy and “story” of who the nation is, where it is going and how it is going to get there.3. To assure that their country maintains a stream of innovative and eye- catching products, services, policies and initiatives in every sector.

How to do it ? The concept of three S : Strategy : knowing who a nation is and where it stands today Substance : effective execution of Strategy that strategy in the form of new economic, legal, political, social, cultural and educational activities Symbolic Symbolic actions : particularSubstance Actions species that might be innovations, structures, reforms, investments which are especially remarcable, memorable, touching, surprising or dramatic

Examples• Slovenian Government donating financial aid to their Balkan neighbors in order to prove that Slovenia wasnt part of the Balkans• Spain legalizing single sex-marriages in order to demonstrate values diametrically opposed to the Franco period• Estonia declaring internet to be a human right & the eGov success• Buildings as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao or the Sydney Opera HouseHow about ICT ?• Companies as Nokia, positioning Finland as the country of the modern telecommunication industry• Research & Innovation centers – Israel• Volume and quality of work force – India as cost-effective destination for large IT projects

Where one can “find” the IT brand of a country?• International surveys and reports• Fairs, conferences and exhibitions• International organizations• Market

How do the Global companies measure Regional IT competitiveness?“…we saw double-digit growth in university enrollment in countries like China, Brazil and Egypt, and the number of firms with quality endorsements like Carnegie Mellons CMMI certification and the ISO 27001 data-security certification almost doubled in several emerging markets.”Source: Source: AT Karney, WASHINGTON (15 March 2007), http://www.atkearney.com;

Share of companies certified to comply with international standards in the CEE region %Six Sigma SPICE Cobit ITMark SAS70 TickIT CMM/CM… ITILISO 9xxx Source:CEE_ITO_Review_201

Fairs and exhibitions• Participation in selected events relevant to the brand• Detailed planning and continuous preparation not short campaign just before the fair• Regular participation of companies and high level government official with common message to the audience• Realistic expectations and focused efforts to achieve them

Membership in International Organizations and Networks• Active participation• Continuous commitment• Expert qualification of the participants• Motivate the best to participate in contests and competitions

Market• Promote good cases of market success in the country• Inform about the strengths of the market environment• Support the market competition• Dominant IT buyers such as Government, Banks and others have to promote open international quality and technology standards instead of creating their own

General Conclusions• Good planning and coordination among stakeholders is a key for creation/altering of successful nation brand• Position the country based on real strengths not based on wishes• Be prepared for long journey…..

Global Services Location Index 2007-2009 Central and Eastern Europe: New Contenders Climb the Rankings ….The trend from last year continues as the established service providers in the region—the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland — lose ground while emerging locations move up the rankings (see figure 5). Bulgaria replaces the Czech Republic as the only country from the region in the top 10. Both Bulgaria and Romania see big jumps in their business environment scores as a result of reforms carried out to qualify for European Union membership, a process that was successfully concluded January 1, 2007. Despite a larger population base, Romania’s relatively higher average wages put it among the middle of the pack at 33…. More on http://www.atkearney.com/shared_res/pdf/GSLI_2007.pdf

Off-shoring & Near-shoring Destination

A Voice for ICT SMEs in EUFounding members of PIN-SME

The supportersMobilize supporters for industry excellence -direct and indirect incentives and help:USAID/RCInational USAID competitiveness projects / CEED / CEED IIGTZ (National, regional – ORF: Western Balkans)EBRD/BAS & TAMWB/IFCNational funds, competitiveness initiatives, export promotionEU programs – ex. EU Operational Program for SME competitiveness (Bulgaria): certification in CMMI, ITMark

Capability Creativity MaturityThank you forthe attention!George BrashnarovVicePresident, PIN-SMEwww.pin-sme.euChairman,BASSCOMwww.basscom.orgESI Center Eastern Europewww.esicenter.eu

Country Competitiveness / Needed Actions & Players

by USAID CEED II Project Moldova

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