Regional Competitiveness Initiative SUMMARY OF RCI ACTIVITIES JUNE

Regional Competitiveness Initiative SUMMARY OF RCI ACTIVITIES JUNE 2005 – JUNE 2009 Filip Stoyanovich, RCI Director

RCI – 4 YEAR SUMMARY REGIONAL COLLABORATION, INTERACTION, PARTNERSHIPS q Number of USAID Missions Involved – 15 q Number of USAID Projects – 42 q Number of Other Donors – 17

RCI – 4 YEAR SUMMARY SOME NUMBERS Events (Conferences, Workshops, Round Tables, excluding trainings): 30 Skopje 07 Almaty 07 Zagreb 06 Skopje 07 Belgrade 06 Skopje 07 Sofia 05 SEE Regional 06 Astana 07 Belgrade 05 Skopje 07 Bucharest 06 SEE Region 05 Bucharest 06 Skopje 07 Sofia 05 June 2005 Belgrade 08 Skopje 09 Budva 08 Belgrade 09 Yerevan 08 Tirana 09 Skopje 08 Sarajevo 09 Belgrade 08 Kiev 09 Ohrid 08 SEE Regional 09 Tirana 08 June 2009

RCI – 4 YEAR SUMMARY SOME NUMBERS Event Participants (excluding trainings) Around 1700 (over 40% business reps)

RCI – 4 YEAR SUMMARY KNOWLEDGE SHARING Besides the continuous events, RCI has: q RCI Newsletters – 14 to over 1, 000 recipients (2007 -2009) q Regional Information Sharing Networks for Agribusiness and Tourism – 201 documents (currently disseminated to 195 stakeholders) q Documents disseminated at events – 1, 606 (over 1. 8 GB of memory)

RCI – 4 YEAR SUMMARY IT QUALITY STANDARDS (CMMI, ITMARK, ETC. ) q Events (awareness, training, workshops, practical in -house) – 123 q Countries – 13 q Cost Sharing Partnership for the IT QS Initiative: • RCI share - 33% • Companies‘ share - 32% • USAID Country Competitiveness Projects’ share - 13% • Other donors’ share – 22%

RCI – 4 YEAR SUMMARY IT QUALITY STANDARDS (CMMI, ITMARK, ETC. ) q Participants at Trainings – 2233 q Companies at Trainings – 694 q Appraisals– 39 (Certified 29) q In the Process of Certification – 22

RCI LATELY 2008 – 2009 EVENTS ü ü Two Annual Conferences (over 200 participants) – Budva, Montenegro and Kiev, Ukraine Four Regional Workshops (30 to 70 participants) on: Belgrade Competitiveness Round Table; Armenia Best Practices; MIC in Varazdin; Workforce Development in Skopje; EU Funding for the Agribusiness Sector in Belgrade Seven Regional Round Tables (up to 30 participants) – 3 for agribusiness (Skopje, Tirana, Belgrade) and 3 for tourism (Ohrid, Tirana, Sarajevo) National Geographic Familiarization Regional Tour of the Western Balkans

RCI LATELY 2008 – 2009 STUDIES / RESEARCH ü ü ü Regional Competitiveness Report 2008 (updated 2009) Macedonia Workforce Development Study (in cooperation with USAID Macedonia) Regional Workforce Development Research for AL, Bi. H, KS, MK, CG, SR Market Research on Regional and Global AMIS and agribusiness database web sites Research on current FDI interest in the SEE region

RCI LATELY 2008 – 2009 PRODUCTS ü Quality Mark Manual – disseminated to AL, Bi. H, KS, MK, CG, SR, UKR (over 700 copies) ü Regional Agribusiness Companies Database for AL, Bi. H, KS, MK, MD, CG, SR (includes 812 companies and 2061 products) ü National Geographic Supplement – Presenting the Western Balkans: Top 50 Sites (in development) ü Regional IT Business Solutions Catalogue (from AL, AR, Bi. H, BG, HR, GE, KS, MK, MD, RO, SR, UKR) – over 80 products and services (in development)

RCI IN THE WORKS Ø Events – Sector Round Tables (IT, tourism, agribusiness, etc. ), Thematic Workshops (global crisis, FDI, workforce, etc. ) and the 5 th Annual Conference Ø Regional Information Sharing – RCI Web Site, Newsletters, Information Networks, etc. Ø Regional IT Quality Standard Excellence Hub and Regional Competence Centers Ø Workforce Development Pilot Projects

RCI IN THE WORKS Ø Promoting the Regions – National Geographic Supplement “Top 50 Sites” of the Western Balkans Ø Regional Tourism Portal for South East Europe Ø International Standards: Tourism – Quality Mark Initiative, Agribusiness – HAACP, Organic Produce Certificate, others Ø Microsoft Innovation Centers Ø Access to Finance and FDI