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ICT industry development in Latvia

Janis Bergs, CEO, MicroLink LatviaChairmen of Board of IS Cluster

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Content

- Main players of Latvian ICT industry, recent developments

- Trends

- Latvian IS Cluster

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Latvian ICT industry

- Telcos

- Software project companies

- Product companies

- Hardware resellers / integrators & service companies, distributors, resellers

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Latvian ICT industry - players and trends

- Telcos - Lattelekom- “New” datacom operators- Latvenergo- VITA- Cable TV operators- GSM operators

- Main trends:- Tripple play, convergence- Diversification: IT, outsourcing, retail

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Latvian ICT industry - players and trends

- IT Software companies- IT Alise- TietoEnator Financials- MicroLink- Dati, Exigen, Data Pro

- Main trends:- Consolidation, local owners sell their

shares to foreign players - Specialization

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Latvian ICT industry - players and trends

- Product companies and specialized companies- SAF Tehnika- Lursoft- Tilde- Lots of new start ups

- Main trends:- The number of such companies is

growing

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Current Industry trends

- Nearshore outsourcing

- Grow of local market:- EU money and Public Sector- GDP growth near 9%

- Increasing deficit of human resources

- Growing competition in Telco markets, entrance of new players

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Latvian IS Cluster

We want to develop in Latvia a lot of companies like Skype, Nokia, SAF Tehnika:

- products or scalable services oriented to global markets;

- costs of raw materials for such products are very small compared to selling prices

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Latvian IS Cluster - activities

- Lobbying- EU funds, legislation, foreign economic

policy, education

- Consulting Cluster members

- Platform for exchange of innovation ideas, cooperation and specialization

- Representation of ICT industry to “world outside”

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Innovation can not be implemented by decree

What government can do:

- Speak with the industry, listen our advise- Invest available funds wisely- Invest in education (both long academic and

professional)- Boost internal IT consumption and positively

lobby companies residing locally- Support availability of capital to finance

innovationThe rest is in God’s and our own hands!

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Thank you for the attention!

janis.bergs@microlink.lv

www.is.lv