AITA

8th SEEITA – 7th SEE ICT Forum Board Meeting & 7th MASIT Open Days Conference14th -15th October, 2010, Ohrid, www.seeita.org

Albanian Information Technology Association (AITA)

Prepared by: Dritan Mezini, MBA, MPM

Board Chairman

http://www.seeita.org/


AITA, IT and

Business Development challenges

Albanian Information Technology Association – AITA

Dritan Mezini, Board Chairman


http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/a/al.gif




• Country profile

• IT/ICT Sector and Market

• AITA

• Key Activities in support to Business development Questions

4

Presentation Outline





Geography

Location surrounded by Macedonia, Monte Negro, Kosova, Greece and Italy (sea border).

Area total: 28,748 sq kmland: 27,398 sq kmwater: 1,350 sq km

Land boundaries

total: 717 kmborder countries: Greece 282 km, Macedonia 151 km, Montenegro 172 km, Kosovo 112 km

Coastline Total :362 km



People

Population 3,619,778 (July 2008 est.)

Age structure 0-14 years: 23.6% 15-64 years: 66.9% 65 years and over: 9.5% (2008

est.)

Median Age total: 29.5 yearsmale: 28.9 yearsfemale: 30.2 years (2008 est.)

Ethnic groups Albanian 95%, Greek 3%, other 2% (Vlach, Roma (Gypsy), Serb, Macedonian, Bulgarian) (1989 est.)



EconomyGDP real growth rate 6% (2007 est.)

GDP composition sector agriculture: 21.2%industry: 20.1%services: 58.7% (2007 est.)

Labor Force 1.09 million (not including 352,000 emigrant workers) (September 2006 est.)

Unemployment Rate 13% official rate, but may exceed 30% due to preponderance of near-subsistence farming (2007 est.)

Industries food processing, textiles and clothing; lumber, oil, cement, chemicals, mining, basic metals, hydropower



International membership

• June 12 2006, Albania signed the Association and Stabilization Agreement

• April 4th, 2008 Albania became NATO member



Visa liberalization

• European Parliament already voted pro the visa liberalization for Albania/BiH

• End of December free to move



• Country Profile


• AITA

• Key Activities in support to Business development Questions

11

Presentation Outline



Private sector and SME

• Private sector contributes an estimated 80% of GDP.

• Main industry sectors:▫ Banking, Insurance, Telecommunication, Construction,

Education,

• SME – main contributors

• Total 83,000 SME where 78,000 are small less than 60,000 Euro turnover/year.



Business Climate

Registration process

• Simplified system registration procedure from 47 days into 1 (one), and at a cost of 1 Euro.



Economic Framework

It is expected fair solid economic growth (WB source, 2008)



Albanian IT Market

• IT Market Size 2007: ca. $89,34 mi.

2008 $ 117.25 mill

growth 31.3%

• Expected IT Market Size 2013: ca. $136.4 mi.

• Dynamic Market

• Opened Market

• Big Potential

Source: IDC 2007, 2008



Sectors

2007 2008

• Hardware 71.40% 73.82%

• Packaged IT 15.70% 10.87%

• IT Services 12.90% 15.31%

Source: IDC 2008



Main IT Sectors

2008 (overall increase)

• IT services increased by 70% to $ 17.95 mill

• Spending on license and maintenance fees for packaged software increased 73% up to $12.75 mill

• Hardware – increase over last year

Source: IDC 2008





Albania IT Market benchmarking (IDC)



Forecast

• Growth in any area of IT sector, where the growth in services will be much higher.

• Country/Industry still have so much room to grow and develop.





Innovation and Technology

• Considered within two perspectives▫ SME

▫ Academic sector

• Lack of “hard and soft infrastructure” that encourages innovation and takes it down to the SME.

• Global Competitiveness Report ranks Albania in the lowest levels.



Technology

• The Reports 9th Pillar, Technological Readiness found that in the

▫ availability of the latest technologies Albania ranked as 104 out of 134,

▫ enterprise technology absorption 110th,

▫ broadband Internet connection 117th, and

▫ personal computer usage at 92nd.



• Country profile


• AITA

• Key Activities in support to Business development

• Questions

24

Table of contents



AITA – general info• Founded in January 8th, 2007

• Current number of members: about 30 – key companies

• Membership structure (companies + NGO + universities)

• Web-site http://www.aita-al.org

• Industry: Information technologies (hardware, software, IT services)


http://www.aita-al.org/




Objectives/Challenges

• Become the main hub of IT sector in Albania• Be the strong voice of the sector to the government• Recognize and identify the weakness/barriers• Development and strengthening of IT industry in the country• Promote the IT sector countrywide• Develop the export services• Become leader of promoting professional services in the

country• Partnership with other associations



AITA - partners

• Open Regional Fond for Foreign Trade Promotion / IT Component-GTZ Project.

• USAID – Rritje Albania

• SEE ICT Forum

• STIKK – Memorandum of understanding

• MASIT – special working relationship

• Norway Government - CRIMSON Capital

• USAID - RCI



• Country profile


• AITA

• Key activities in Support to Business Development

• Questions

28

Table of contents



Current business climate

• Strong support by the Government

• Strong support by international organizations supporting ICT activities

• Support by local group of interests



Institutional changes

• Ministry for Innovation and Technology

• Agency for Innovation support

• National Information Society



Key Activities to Business Development• Initiate the meeting with Prime Minister (April 2010)

Main Requirements and promisses▫ VAT reduction – Currently 20% - it was promissed 10%

▫ Set-up of an agency for soft loans towards ICT sector

▫ Technological Village

▫ Prioritize the software and services development

▫ Create the National Forum of Digital Albania



continued

• Connection in between University and the ICT market

• The ICT week organization in the country

• Introduction of ICT standards

• ICT budget planning and directions in order to shape the trends

• Making manadatory the inclusion of local ICT companies into international tenders



Activities

• Participation of AITA in the National Curricula Group

for ICT courses for vocational schools

• B2B organized by STIKK and AITA

Recognition of AITA as the representaive of IT private

business and as the business solution providers.



Large country initiatives

There are large countries projects going on in

procurement, taxes, customs, health and so on,

supported by Government, USAID, World Bank, EBRD,

EU and so on.



National Forum for Digital Albania

• Is a product of AITA and Ministry for Innovation and Technology.

The main goal of the Forum is the initiation of projects

by the Governemnt and private sector in support of

ICT and business development.

AITA works very close with all the stakeholders for the promoter

and solution provider for IT industry.



• Country profile


• AITA

• Key activities in Support to Business Development

• Questions

36

Table of contents



AITA Now and on

• STIKK-Crimson Capital – Norway Foreign Support support AITA with seed money for the next two years.



It will enable to shift from volunteer work to hiring an executive

staff. This support will strengthen AITA, its role in the country, in

the sector, region and it will provide also a future sustainable

model.

AITA is product of IT and business market and it will be

there for challenging the barriers and develop the market, and

ensure the future of IT in the country.



Thank you for your attention!

www.aita-al.org

[email protected]


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