OVERVIEW 2
A Master Strategy for Armenia’s ICT Industry 2
GOALS 2
SUCCESS FACTORS 3
Success Factor 1: Global Competitiveness Through Entrepreneurship 3
Success Factor 2: Access to Capital 6
Success Factor 3: Access to Markets 8
Success Factor 4: Maintaining the Momentum 9
Implementation 12
Conclusion 12
Goals 14
Goal 1 14
Goal 2 15
SUCCESS FACTORS 15
Success Factor 1: Global Competitiveness Through Entrepreneurship 15
Success Factor 2: Access to Capital 16
Success Factor 3: Access to Markets 16
Success Factor 4: Maintaining the Momentum 16
Success Factor 1: GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS THROUGH ENTREPRENEURSHIP 17
Strategic Direction 1: Develop Human Capital 17
Strategic Direction 2: Develop Business Capital 24
Strategic Direction 3: Legal and Regulatory Environment 27
Strategic Direction 4: Facilitate Accessible and Affordable Telecommunication Services 32
Strategic Direction 5: Enhance Government Services Through Use of ICTs 36
SUCCESS FACTOR 2: ACCESS TO CAPITAL 38
Strategic Direction 6: Develop External Angel and Venture Capital Funds 38
Strategic Direction 7: Lower Barriers to Investment 39
Strategic Direction 8: Develop Domestic Angel and Venture Capital Funds 40
SUCCESS FACTOR 3: ACCESS TO MARKETS 43
Strategic Direction 9: Position Armenian ICT Companies in External Markets 43
Strategic Direction 10: Lower Barriers to Service Delivery 45
Strategic Direction 11: Develop Domestic Markets 46
Success Factor 4: Maintaining the Momentum 47
Strategic Direction 12: Create Global Networks 47
Strategic Direction 13: Create Innovation Systems 49
Strategic Direction 14: Transition to High Value Business 51
Strategic Direction 15: Develop Profit Models 54
Strategic Direction 16: Improve Quality of Life and Encourage Prosperity Sharing 56
Strategic Direction 17: Create Regional Leadership Initiatives 57
Strategic Direction 18: Make Science and Research a Priority 58
IMPLEMENTATION 59
ATTACHMENT 1 60
Legal and Regulatory Environment 60
I. PRIVATE SECTOR INVOLVEMENT COUPLED WITH HIGH-LEVEL SUPPORT OF THE GOVERNMENT OF ARMENIA 60
II. ISSUES DEALING WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF ICT INDUSTRY 61
The transition from manufacturing economies to knowledge economies offers new opportunities for Armenia. Wealth in the 21st century will accrue to those who implement “knowledge based infrastructures.” This revolution favors Armenia—with its strong depth of intellectual resources—to be viable in the global marketplace. Armenia’s potential to succeed is great, but it relies on the country’s ability to leverage human capital and to retain its knowledge assets, not export them. To do so, the Armenian information and communication technology (ICT) industry must:
The most rapid path to global competitiveness for Armenia as an ICT producer is to: 1) leverage the strong mathematical structure, numerical algorithmic, and logic capacities of its existing professionals; 2) leverage the ICT resources of the U.S. Diaspora companies that have already come to Armenia, as well as attracting new companies from North America and Europe; 3) create conditions that attract new talent; and 4) leverage the relatively small ICT resources of Armenia by creating a collaborative “team culture of enterprises” in Armenia where an environment for both cooperation and competition (or “coopetition”) is the norm.