Enabling International Strategic Partnering in Information Technology

1. Enabling International Strategic Partnering in Information Technology Dr. Delfin Jay M. Sabido IX Chief Technology Officer Integrated Microelectronics, Inc. Philippines

2. Organising a long-term multilateral scientific collaboration is notoriously difficult, especially when the collaboration is meant to be truly international, i.e., not just an extension of one country’s research project or program. This is true even when there is strong agreement among scientists of many nations about scientific issues (scope, goals, methodology, resource needs, etc.) One of the principal reasons for this is a lack of experience, procedures, documentation and venues for designing the needed legal, administrative, and financial structures of the desired co-operative project. In other words, there is a lack of knowledge about how to make the transition from a shared scientific vision to an efficient, adequately funded and staffed scientific collaboration.- OECD secretariat’s introduction to Mr. Eric James’ paperEstablishing International Scientific Collaborations: Lessons Learned from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, February 2002

3. Global Trends in Networking • High- and medium-technology industries (ICT, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, electronic equipment, computers, telecom, and financial and business services) • Concentrated in developed countries, NICs, economies in transition with significant capabilities and domestic markets

4. Formation of these new forms of cooperation was triggered by the fundamental changes in the structure of the global economy and process of technological change

5. Structural Drivers Technological Drivers • Globalization • Homogenization of markets • Fierce competition • Cost of R&D • Complexity of products • Speed of technological developments • Widespread use of ICT

6. Partnerships in the Private Sector • Essential part of international corporate strategies • Make up for the lack of economic power, competence, foreign experience • Allows cost- and risk- sharing • Used as scanning devices to monitor new markets and monitor particular fields of technology • Reduce lead times for innovative products • To access competitively priced resources (labor) • Technology transfer

7. WTO ITA: Enabling Partnerships - What are the pre-conditions for successfully developing international partnerships, and what constitutes current best practice? - How can the varying needs of ITA member economies be met? - What areas of ICT have the greatest potential to deliver benefits from enhanced regional and international interaction? - Which ITA member economies have an interest in pursuing enhanced collaboration? - What are the potential models for enhanced collaboration? - What role can or should WTO play in facilitating the growth of ICT networks, collaborations and partnerships?

8. Are there policies that ITA members may adopt to facilitate such ICT partnerships? • What are the strategic and tactical challenges to such alliances and partnerships?

9. Key Challenges: Differences in… • Education/Training/Experience • Infrastructure • Financial Resources/Economic Power • Culture

10. Some Pre-conditions • An accessible and responsive education and training system, making full use of information and communication technologies; • Innovative businesses closely linked to the research community; • Research institutions which network domestically and internationally to access complementary knowledge, high-level skills and facilities; • Internationally competitive incentives for high caliber researchers; and • Government, industry and researchers who are emphatically forward-looking, assessing possible technology paths systematically and prioritising accordingly 1st APEC Science and Technology Policy Forum, Chair’s Summary, Penang, Malaysia, 8-9 October 2001.

11. Areas and Examples • Education and training, HRD, accreditation (E-Learning, Project Management, Health) • Pre-competitive (transportation, agriculture, nanotechnologies, non-human genomics, marine bio-resources )

12. Areas and Examples of Our Efforts • Common/public good – health, environment, food, sustainable development, children’s issues, gender and development, remote area power services; flooding in urban areas; rural telecommunications • Information exchange, in general, through ICT (E-Learning, electronic discussion forum)

13. Examples of Other Possible Opportunities for Collaboration • Research & education ICT network infrastructure • E-Government • R&D Centers for Excellence • Use of Open Source Software (OSS)

14. Research and education ICT network infrastructure A network to link academe, research, and government institutions through a nationwide and international (regional and worldwide) broadband network to enable R&D collaboration among various ICT and S&T organizations. One of the most urgent requirements for several developing countries is to fast-track the establishment of high performance network services for research and development, and for enhanced collaboration.

15. E-Government Such opportunities for partnership and collaboration in the pursuit of e-Government exist not only within a nation, but among nations as well. Countries can learn from each other’s experiences on how to effectively implement e-Government projects. Moreover, it is possible that a successful e-Government project in one country can be replicated in another country with some minor modifications.

16. R&D Centers of Excellence A mechanism for industry, academe and government, and international cooperation for technology and capability development. This R&D and training center will be a conduit for developing the technologies required, and a place of convergence for technopreneurs, investors, businesspeople, engineers, scientists and technologists. The center will address the need to facilitate technology transfer agreements with companies, abroad and here, local and foreign academe, and to fast track the dissemination of technological capabilities to the private sector

17. Use of Open Source Software (OSS) OSS refers to software that is developed, tested, or improved through public collaboration and distributed with the idea that it must be shared with others, ensuring open future collaboration. Open software is an especially useful tool to allow developing countries and economies in transition to leapfrog into the information age. It encourages novel development models that have been demonstrated to be particularly well suited to take advantage of the work of developers collaborating across the Internet. In general, it also has a positive impact as an enabler for the creation of new markets and business opportunities. Government, in partnership with industry and society, has a key role to play in the debate on the viability of OSS, as government is the largest procurer of ICT in most economies.

18. How does one set-up and manage successful partnerships?

19. Step 1 - Building Consensus/Negotiation • What are the possible and desirable outcomes? • Clearly determine the economy’s/firm’s needs from the partnership • Clearly understand the strategic objectives of the economy/firm • Partner choice and negotiation • Identify a champion

20. Things to consider • Partnership negotiation • - Negotiate a suitable agreement • - Agreement template • Treat the partnership agreement as a living document • Understand that the comparative advantages of partners at the outset of the agreement may change over time

21. More things to consider • Problems related to the dynamic changes in the relationship • Partnership agreements must contain sound provisions for dispute resolution, and the exit mechanism to be employed in terminating the partnership in the event of irreconcilable differences

22. International Strategy-Related Concerns • Export rights • Tax issues • Dividend and investment policies • Partner size differences N. Vonortas and M. Hamdi, "Partnerships and Networking in Science and Technology for Development," United Nations, New York and Geneva 2002.

23. Step 2 - Planning Stage • Rules on assigning credit • Establishing rules for data (including format, quality assurance, storage, access and retrieval) • How to synchronize funding from different sources • Costs of collaboration

24. Sensitive Issues • Be aware that technology transfer is one of the most sensitive and contentious issues. Create clear provisions for a framework of technology use in the partnership • Concerns on ownership, IP and control

25. IP Issues • There was a clear finding that issues arising from the management of IP can present serious barriers to the development and maintenance of S&T networks. There is a need to develop common protocols for IP management.

26. Step 3Design of an organization that could achieve the desired outcomes

27. Organizational Modes of Strategic Alliance Joint ventures Joint R&D pacts Joint development agreements R&D pacts R&D Contracts Second-sourcing Licensing N. Vonortas and M. Hamdi, "Partnerships and Networking in Science and Technology for Development," United Nations, New York and Geneva 2002

28. Concerns on Organizational Mode Stability vs. Flexibility Equity agreements vs. non-equity agreements/contractual agreements Formal vs. Informal Partnership Choice of mode of alliance is affected by the tradeoff between minimizing organizational complexity and maximizing control over the alliance by each partner.

29. Organizational Structure Secretariat, administrative functions, project management Host country Process Legal Budget From OECD secretariat’s introduction to Mr. Eric James’ paperEstablishing International Scientific Collaborations: Lessons Learned from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, February 2002

30. Step 4Implementation Stage

31. Implementation Issues Monitor and review the partnership throughout its lifetime Phased projects with achievable milestones Start with a pilot project Project monitoring across national boundaries, how to manage these? Scheduling regular face-to-face meetings Communicate often Rotating leadership Human resource issues

32. Dr. Delfin Jay M. Sabido IX jsabido@imiphil.com THANK YOU!