06/07/1434 1 4: Competitiveness of the ICT sector Overview of the competitiveness of ICT in the Arab region Ibrahim Akoum Andrea Renda Expert Group Meeting on Investment, Research, Development and Innovation in the ICT Sector Hammamet, Tunisia, 7-8 May 2013 Competitiveness • Definition still controversial – General: linked to productivity and growth – Sectoral: “the ability of a country to keep up with global competition in a given sector” • Very difficult to assess it for ICT – ICT is an ecosystem – Need for a layered approach (Fransmann 2010)
Transcript
06/07/1434
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4: Competitiveness of the ICT sector
Overview of the competitiveness of ICT in the Arab region
Ibrahim Akoum
Andrea Renda
Expert Group Meeting on Investment, Research, Development and Innovation in the ICT Sector
Hammamet, Tunisia, 7-8 May 2013
Competitiveness
• Definition still controversial
– General: linked to productivity and growth
– Sectoral: “the ability of a country to keep up with global competition in a given sector”
• Very difficult to assess it for ICT
– ICT is an ecosystem
– Need for a layered approach (Fransmann 2010)
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ICT and competitiveness: key factors
1. Infrastructure
– Positive relationship between broadband and economic growth
• Qiang and Rossotto (2009): a 10% increase in broadband penetration yields an additional 1.21% of GDP growth in high income countries, which rises to 1.38% in low and middle income countries.
• Doubling broadband speed increases GDP by 0.3%
– Impact is stronger in sectors with high transaction costs, or high labor intensity, such as tourism and lodging
– “Productivity shock”, but over time more jobs (2.66 gained for every job lost)
– Impact on the productivity of SMEs takes longer due to “accumulation of intangible capital”
Content layer(e.g. web pages, audiovisual content, Voice calls)
Content layer(e.g. web pages, audiovisual content, Voice calls)
Market power and enduring bottlenecks can emerge at alllayers. Legacy market power in the physical network can be challenged by killer apps, logical layer champions and
Cloud platform(Operational and business support services)
Cloud delivered services(SaaS, PaaS, AaaS, IaaS)
Mobile(LTE, WiMax, etc.)
Other(eReaders, PDAs)
Cloud
platform
Cloud
Delivered
Services
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Competitiveness, per layer
Source: Veugelers (2012)
OECD’s top ICT policy priorities
OECD (2013) 16
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Competitiveness of ICT in the Arab region
• Key challenges
– Common to other countries• Limited access to finance.
• Failing intellectual property rights.
• ICT ecosystem failures.
– Specific• Lack of government incentive programs.
• Ineffective, non-existent, or restrictive regulatory environments.
• Inadequate ICT infrastructure.
• Finance requirements and mechanisms.
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Competitiveness of ICT in the Arab region
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0 2 4 6
Djibouti
Sudan
Mauritania
Yemen
Syria
Morocco
Egypt
Algeria
Lebanon
Tunisia
MENA
Jordan
Kuwait
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
Oman
Bahrain
UAE
Source of Data: World Bank KAM database
Figure X. Knowledge Economy Index (2012 )
0 5 10
Africa
South Asia
MENA
World
Latin America
East Asia & the Pacific
Europe & Central Asia
North America
Source of data: World Bank KAM database
Figure X. Knowledge Economy Index by Region (2012 ) Knowledge economy index 2011, by country and by region
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Competitiveness of ICT in the Arab region
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ICT development index 2012, by country and by region
0 0 2 0 4 0 6 0 8 0 10 0
Africa
South Asia
World
MENA
East Asia & the Pacific
Latin America
Europe & Central Asia
North America
Source of data: World Bank KAM database
Figure X. ICT Development Index by Region (2012)
0 2 4 6 8 10
Yemen
Djibouti
Mauritania
Sudan
Egypt
Syria
Lebanon
MENA
Algeria
Jordan
Tunisia
Oman
Kuwait
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
UAE
Bahrain
Source of data: World Bank KAM database
Figure X. ICT Development Index (2012)
Competitiveness of ICT in the Arab region
• Poor infrastructure in many parts of the region
• Weak knowledge triangle
– Low R&D intensity
200 0 0 5 1 0 1 5 2 0 2 5
Saudi Arabia
Kuwait
Egypt
Jordan
Sub-Saharan Africa
Latin America & Cribbean
South Asia
Europe & Central Asia
Tunisia
East Asia & Pacific
European Union
World
OECD members
Source of data: World Bank S&T data base
(% of GDP)
Figure X. R&D Expenditures(2007-09)R&D expenditure on GDP, 2007-2009
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Competitiveness of ICT in the Arab region
• Poor infrastructure in many parts of the region
• Weak knowledge triangle
– Low R&D intensity
– Lack of researchers
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0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000
Arab States - Asia
Africa
Arab States -All
Arab States-Africa
Egypt
Developing countries
World
EU
Developed countries
Data source: UNESCO database.
Figure X. Number of Researchers per million People(2009)
Researcher per million inhabitants, 2009
Competitiveness of ICT in the Arab region
• Poor infrastructure in many parts of the region
• Weak knowledge triangle
– Low R&D intensity
– Lack of researchers
– Lack of technicians
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Technicians per min inhabitants, 2008-9
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
Iraq
West Bank
Kuwait
Tunisia
Morocco
Turkey
Hong Kong
United Kingdom
Sweden
Denmark
Data source: UNESCO database.
Figure X. Number of Technicians per million People(2008-09)
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Competitiveness of ICT in the Arab region
• Poor infrastructure in many parts of the region
• Weak knowledge triangle
• ICT spending growing fast
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ICT spending by region (base year 2003)
Source: OECD IE Outlook 2012
Existing plans (I)
• Some Arab states actively pursuing ICT developments:
– GCC countries, Jordan, Morocco and Egypt.
– These countries put ICT at the forefront of their agendas, have levels of ICT spending that are comparable to the leading countries in the world, and seem to be reaping benefits from this choice.
– Some (e.g. UAE) initially focused on becoming “outsourcing hubs”, but are now attaching value to SMEs as a main engine of local ICT (and broader economic) growth.
• Other countries seem to way less active in the development of a comprehensive, effective ICT strategy.
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Existing plans (II)
• Some examples
– Oman’s digital gov strategy already in 2003, followed by Syria
– Abu Dhabi’s focus on e-government
– Dubai’s outsourcing drive and then Dubai Internet City
– Jordan: from the REACH initiative (1999–2005) to the National ICT Strategy NIS (2007-2011)
– Saudi Arabia: a complex, evolving regulatory framework
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Existing plans (III)
• Maroc Numeric 2013: four priorities
– High-speed Internet
– Connecting users and government agencies
– Encouraging the computerization of SMEs
– Developing national digital content
• Jordan’s MoICT top priorities
– Infrastructure
– Reliable supply of human resources
– Cybersecurity
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Conclusions
• Institutions, Innovation and Investment are all important for ICT competitiveness
– Regulatory reform and simplification essential, not sufficient
– Make better use of ICT to reach the MDGs
– Infrastructure is becoming the key priority: opportunities for leapfrogging, need to prioritize deployment and investment
– Education is essential to boost absorption and create/export skills in specific areas (e.g. cloud computing): it is very often neglected in national ICT and innovation strategies
– Mature financial markets a strength of (part of) the Arab region
– Mind the layers: competing at the global or regional level is possible mostly at layers 2 and 3 of the ICT ecosystem
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4: Competitiveness of the ICT sector
Overview of the competitiveness of ICT in the Arab region
Ibrahim Akoum
Andrea Renda
Expert Group Meeting on Investment, Research, Development and Innovation in the ICT Sector
