Valentina Botan

Post-soviet countries: the journey from resource-driven economies to knowledge based-economies.

Focus on ICT sector

Summary

IntroductionMethods and DataResults and AnalysisConclusions and DiscussionsQ&A

Introduction, This paper analyses the

performance of 10 former soviet republics: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russian Federation and Ukraine in transforming their economies from resource-driven into knowledge based-economies. The focus will be on analyzing the ICT sector development in these countries, starting from the premise that countries rich in natural resources (Russia, Azerbaijan and partially Ukraine) had registered less progress in this sector if compared to the rest of the countries from the analyzed pool.

Methods and DataAnalyzed indicators:

•ICT share in GDP;•ICT services export share in total exports; •ICT services export share in GDP;•Share of people employed in ICT activity on total employed people

ICT share in GDP (%)Ranking Countries % ICT share in GDP

1 Moldova 8,92 Estonia 4,93 Latvia 3,74 Belarus 3,15 Lithuania 3,16 Armenia 27 Azerbaijan 1,98 Russian Federation 1,39 Ukraine 1,24

Natural resources rents vs. ICT sector (% of GDP)

5,2

38,5

2,5 2,6 2,6 1 0,5

18,7

4,62 1,9 3,1 4,9 3,7 3,1

8,8

1,3 1,24

Total Natural resources rents, % of GDP, 2012 ICT sector share in GDP

Tendency of ICT services exports/total exports

ICT employment

Conclusions and DiscussionBaltic States and Moldova performed better in ICT sector developmentUkraine, Belarus and Armenia - good results are starting to appearRussian Federation, Azerbaijan - working on strategies for boosting the ICT sector. The evidence is that countries rich in natural resources have registered a much lower progress in developing their ICT sector…

Q&A