regional high-level workshop on electronic commerce and ict for central america and the caribbean...
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Regional High-Level Workshop on Electronic Commerceand ICT for Central America and the Caribbean
Curaçao, June 25-27, 2002
‘E-Selling’ Caricom
Annalee C. Babb
Regional High-Level Workshop on Electronic Commerceand ICT for Central America and the Caribbean
Curaçao, June 25-27, 2002
Outline
Main Question/Central Arguments
ICT & Development
Ways of Thinking About Access
National Knowledge Infrastructure [NKI] for Growth
Innovating Technology Services
Conclusion: Knowledge-Driven Development
Recommendations
Regional High-Level Workshop on Electronic Commerceand ICT for Central America and the Caribbean
Curaçao, June 25-27, 2002
Main Question
Several Caricom member states moving to invest heavily and quickly in necessary ICT infrastructures to promote e-commerce
But, what products and services are they planning to sell in the high-value-added Internet marketplace?
Regional High-Level Workshop on Electronic Commerceand ICT for Central America and the Caribbean
Curaçao, June 25-27, 2002
Central Arguments
Real barrier to e-commerce growth and long-term development of islands of Caribbean Community:
– Lack of enabling environment for creation, processing & diffusion of new knowledge, ideas & innovation
Solution: Creation of a National Knowledge Infrastructure (NKI) for development, built on
– Operational access to new digital media within…
– … an efficient National System of [services] Innovation
Regional High-Level Workshop on Electronic Commerceand ICT for Central America and the Caribbean
Curaçao, June 25-27, 2002
Link Between Telecoms & Development
Is there a correlation between investment in telecoms & development?
– Causality runs both ways
ICT investments Economic growth
ICT investments Economic growth
Heather Hudson, 1997
Regional High-Level Workshop on Electronic Commerceand ICT for Central America and the Caribbean
Curaçao, June 25-27, 2002
Product Cycles
ICT policy-making product cycle
– From utopian pronouncements to more critical analyses
– Today, many policy-makers still euphoric about ICT potential…
– …Scholars are becoming more critical, but
– Still strong belief that new digital media hold tremendous promise for development
Ernest J. Wilson III, 1997
Regional High-Level Workshop on Electronic Commerceand ICT for Central America and the Caribbean
Curaçao, June 25-27, 2002
If You Have a Hammer…
To someone with a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail…
It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail…
-- Abraham Maslow
Regional High-Level Workshop on Electronic Commerceand ICT for Central America and the Caribbean
Curaçao, June 25-27, 2002
Making Room for Difference
Each society has its own strengths/weaknesses
– Different levels of receptivity to technological innovation/change
Every developmental issue facing less advanced economies is not equivalent to Maslow’s nail
Nor is its solution necessarily to be found in the hammer of a specific technology or technological application
– i.e., the new digital media/the e-commerce services/applications they make possible
Regional High-Level Workshop on Electronic Commerceand ICT for Central America and the Caribbean
Curaçao, June 25-27, 2002
Old Economy vs. New Economy
Strong correlation between ability to be competitive in the ‘old’ economy and ability to stay competitive in the Internet economy
– Technology sectors crash beginning in 2000
– Structural problems in Asian economies
E-commerce penetration by region is closely linked to education and affluence (economic and social development)
Regional High-Level Workshop on Electronic Commerceand ICT for Central America and the Caribbean
Curaçao, June 25-27, 2002
The High Stakes Internet
E-commerce stats:
– B2B transactions worldwide could top the US$1 trillion mark by 2006
– Corporations internationally could save more than US$1 trillion in 2002 doing business over the Internet
The $$ stakes are high – motivating countries & businesses to make huge investments to be part of the lucrative e-commerce space
Regional High-Level Workshop on Electronic Commerceand ICT for Central America and the Caribbean
Curaçao, June 25-27, 2002
Caricom’s ICT/E-Commerce Strategies
Barbados example
– Telecoms liberalization/deregulation, sector competition
– IPR protection
– E-commerce legislation
– Proposed bankruptcy bill
– Edutech2000
Regional High-Level Workshop on Electronic Commerceand ICT for Central America and the Caribbean
Curaçao, June 25-27, 2002
Caricom’s Structural Challenges
Productivity/efficiency gains from domestic e-commerce activities too small to sustain economic growth
– Also tiny local production base in manufacturing, agriculture…
Heavy dependence on a few foreign exchange earning sectors
Risk-averse private sectors not responsive to innovation/change
Public sector inertia & inefficiency
Absence of national systems/policies for services sector innovation
Little success moving to high-value-added tech products & services
Regional High-Level Workshop on Electronic Commerceand ICT for Central America and the Caribbean
Curaçao, June 25-27, 2002
The art of selling things well is useless to someone who has little or nothing to sell…
Regional High-Level Workshop on Electronic Commerceand ICT for Central America and the Caribbean
Curaçao, June 25-27, 2002
Solution
I propose creation/nurturing of National Knowledge Infrastructure (NKI) as central framework for development/economic growth
– Places knowledge at center of development at every level of economy and society
Components of the NKI:
– Operational access to new digital media in…
– … an efficient National System of [services] Innovation
Regional High-Level Workshop on Electronic Commerceand ICT for Central America and the Caribbean
Curaçao, June 25-27, 2002
Understanding Access
Physical Access
Financial Access
Secure Access
Operational Access
Regional High-Level Workshop on Electronic Commerceand ICT for Central America and the Caribbean
Curaçao, June 25-27, 2002
Physical Access
Financial Access
Secure Access
Operational Access
(knowledge)
Barbados’
Current Position?
Barbados/ Caricom’s
Target Position
What is required What is required for Barbados/ for Barbados/
Caricom/ OECS to Caricom/ OECS to Move up the Move up the
ICT/Knowledge ICT/Knowledge Ladder?Ladder?
OECS’ Current
Position?OECS = Organization of
Eastern Caribbean States
Stepping up the Technology Ladder
Source: Adapted from Vongpivat, 2002
Regional High-Level Workshop on Electronic Commerceand ICT for Central America and the Caribbean
Curaçao, June 25-27, 2002
Public
Private
Academia
Framework
ComponentsSources
Policy
Production
Research
Private Sector
Government
Academia
Macro environment
Elements of an NSI
Source: Vongpivat 2002
Regional High-Level Workshop on Electronic Commerceand ICT for Central America and the Caribbean
Curaçao, June 25-27, 2002
Innovation in Services
Pratana Vongpivat: In NSI, government policy plays crucial role in sparking competition, demand for and supply of new technologies
Her model, like NSI literature in general, explores mainly productive/ manufacturing sectors of an economy
My research argues it is vital for Caricom states to create national systems that foster innovation in high-value-added technology services sectors
– OECD has just begun to look at this for its member states– More research necessary in general, and for Caricom
Regional High-Level Workshop on Electronic Commerceand ICT for Central America and the Caribbean
Curaçao, June 25-27, 2002
Conclusion
Operational Access (to ICT)
+
NSI (in services)
=
NKI (knowledge creation)
Regional High-Level Workshop on Electronic Commerceand ICT for Central America and the Caribbean
Curaçao, June 25-27, 2002
Some Recommendations
National education curricula that focus on “absorption” of information as well as teaching of logic, creative thinking and critical analysis
Targeted regional partnerships between private sectors, academia and governments for diffusion of specified knowledge/technologies
Software and e-commerce institutes to foster student, teacher, knowledge exchange between region’s MDCs and LDCs
Attraction/effective utilization of high-tech financial, intellectual and physical capital of Caribbean Diaspora
Regional High-Level Workshop on Electronic Commerceand ICT for Central America and the Caribbean
Curaçao, June 25-27, 2002
More Recommendations
Fostering of risk-taking/innovative culture in Caricom private sectors– Example: Bankruptcy laws to encourage invention & originality,
rather than penalizing actors for business failures
Creation of appropriate R&D environment– Would support efforts of inexperienced companies in developing,
commercializing new high-technology products and services
Incentives to UWI to integrate new digital technologies & services across main and satellite campuses, and devote more capacity to R&D in support of private sector, general economic growth– Academia might work together with international organizations
Regional High-Level Workshop on Electronic Commerceand ICT for Central America and the Caribbean
Curaçao, June 25-27, 2002
My Research Network
Lee W. McKnight, Paul Vaaler, and Raul Katz, Mobile Nations. Creative Destruction in Emerging Markets, (under review by MIT Press), 2003.
Lee W. McKnight, Paul Vaaler, and Raul Katz, eds., Creative Destruction. Business Survival Strategies in the Global Internet Economy, MIT Press, 2001, 2002; Japanese translation Toyo Keizai, 2003.
Peter Cukor and Lee McKnight, “Knowledge Networks, the Internet, and Development,” The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, Vol. 25, no. 1, March 2001, pp. 43-58.
Pratana Vongpivat, “A National Innovation System Model: Industrial Development in Thailand,” Unpublished doctoral dissertation, 2002, Medford, MA: The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.