Kosovo ICT Association - STIKK presentation (Mitrovice - 30 May 2015)

Kosovo ICT AssociationLorik MullaademiProject Manager, STIKK

Brief info about our organization What we have been doing these couple of past years Our challenges Our cooperation and partnerships Our initiatives The future

Today we are going over…

Formalized and started functioning in 2008 by 6 companies who were given also the support of Norwegian government, IKT Norge and Crimson Capital.

Currently counting over 40 member companies, and more than 60 IT professionals and students, and 5 partnerships with universities.

We like to call ourselves a “system” that connects dots. Our vision is to promote digital transformation and supporting Kosovo in

becoming a knowledge-based economy. And to achieve that we got three main pillars:

Advocacy & Lobbying

Development of Human Resources according to sector needs

Creating Business Opportunities for our member companies

Kosovo ICT Association - STIKK

The primary objective of the organization is in advocacy and lobbying. Key achievements:

The facilitation and development of national strategies. (Kosovo IT Strategy, Innovation Strategy)

Participation and development of regional strategies. (SEE ICT Export Promotion Strategy)

Participation in committees and working groups for the development of various national strategies that relate to technology development.

Lobbying for refining the national fiscal policies according to best practices for sector development.

Publication of various policy papers for sector development.

Publication of various sectorial reports.

1. Advocacy & lobbying

The program is concentrated in educating the wider masses about the implication of ICT education in the everyday life of a citizen, in training and certifying employees of member companies, and trainings for IT students and professionals. (For the YOUTH)

Involvement in committees and working groups for strategies and educational policies that are facilitated by the government.

Facilitating quality assurance trainings for our companies through international certifications (e.g. ISO standards, ITMark, ICCP)

Provision of courses in mobile development, software engineering and IT management, and provision of internships at member companies through the STIKK Training Academy.

Career fairs and student placement service with our university partners.

Organization of Business Tuesdays, Trend updates, KosICT conference and other knowledge-sharing events (in cooperation with the Innovation Centre Kosovo).

2. Development of human resources

This pillar is focused on the potential of our companies in local and international competitiveness and reaching innovation, as a mean to be able to sell their services/products.

STIKK B2B export promotion service, which offers matchmaking activities, promotional activities and marketing for our member companies.

The establishment of Innovation Centre Kosovo (ICK), which serves as the first incubator and supporter of start-ups in Kosovo.

Participation in international fairs of ICT such as Cebit and Webit.

Study trips for our member companies in successful BPO examples.

Tender information and domestic market opportunity exploration.

Networking with local and international partners.

3. Creation of business opportunities

The biggest challenge for us has been and still remains to increase the awareness of the public sector on the importance of digitalization and the benefits it brings to the economy and lifestyle.

Other challenges remain: Triple Helix partnerships Educational reform Infrastructure investment Missing resources

Our challenges

Our cooperation & partnerships

20th Century

INDUSTRIALECONOMY

21st Century

DIGITALECONOMY

22nd Century

NETWORKINGECONOMY

Universities

Donors/ International organizations

Businesses

Other CSOs

Government

Media

We take pride on our system and ourselves as a intermediator

Kosovo IT Strategy (to be adapted and implemented by public sector this summer) Developed in a triple helix partnership

Consists of international and local funding

Comprehensive and called upon latest trends

Consists of 9 pillars of development:

1. IT promotion Policy

2. Company Excellence

3. Export Promotion

4. Domestic Market

5. IT Education

6. IT Clusters

7. Entrepreneurship

8. Innovation & R&D

9. Investment Promotion

Our initiatives – Kosovo IT Strategy

Acting upon our “system” we have created many opportunities for youth

Innovation Centre Kosovo founded in 2012 in cooperation with Athene Projektsledesle and Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Over 100 start-ups have passed through ICK in 2 and ½ years.

Many have succeeded and others have failed.

More than 250 youth got self-employed or employed.

Opportunity to network with local and international partners/investors/entrepreneurs.

Together we have achieved to foster a culture of innovation in our country.

Our initiatives – Innovation Centre Kosovo

STIKK Training Academy was founded by the end of 2013.

Trained over 300 young IT enthusiasts in different IT topics, who got internships or employed at our member companies.

Offered opportunity for our companies to get certified on different international certifications.

Currently restructuring and to be launched by end of this year.

Our initiatives – STIKK Training Academy

The future – Youth in IT The only way we are going to develop and get promoted as a country is

if we flourish in our youth. IT is cheap, accessible and all tools are available for education. Supporting mechanisms in STIKK and ICK. Now finally prioritized by the government.

IT KNOWS NO BOUNDARIES AND BORDERS.

WHAT YOU CAN CONCEIVE YOU CAN ACHIEVE.

Thank you for your time!

Rexhep Mala 28A, 10000 Prishtina

+381 38 771 180 ext. 501

[email protected]

www.stikk-ks.org