Enabling International

Strategic Partnering in
Information Technology
Dr. Delfin Jay M. Sabido IX
Chief Technology Officer
Integrated Microelectronics, Inc.
Philippines

WTO Information Technology Symposium, 18-19 October 2004 1

Organising a long-term multilateral scientific collaboration is
notoriously difficult, especially when the collaboration is meant to
be truly international, i.e., not just an extension of one country’s
research project or program. This is true even when there is strong
agreement among scientists of many nations about scientific issues
(scope, goals, methodology, resource needs, etc.) One of the
principal reasons for this is a lack of experience, procedures,
documentation and venues for designing the needed legal,
administrative, and financial structures of the desired co-operative
project. In other words, there is a lack of knowledge about how to
make the transition from a shared scientific vision to an efficient,
adequately funded and staffed scientific collaboration.

- OECD secretariat’s introduction to Mr. Eric James’ paper

Establishing International Scientific Collaborations: Lessons Learned from the
Global Biodiversity Information Facility, February 2002

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Global Trends in Networking
o High- and medium-technology industries
(ICT, pharmaceuticals, chemicals,
electronic equipment, computers, telecom,
and financial and business services)
o Concentrated in developed countries,
NICs, economies in transition with
significant capabilities and domestic
markets

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Formation of these new forms of
cooperation was triggered by the
fundamental changes in the
structure of the global economy
and process of technological
change

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Structural Technological
Drivers Drivers
o Globalization o Cost of R&D
o Homogenization of o Complexity of
markets products
o Fierce competition o Speed of
technological
developments
o Widespread use of
ICT

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Partnerships in the Private
Sector
o Essential part of international corporate
strategies
o Make up for the lack of economic power,
competence, foreign experience
o Allows cost- and risk- sharing
o Used as scanning devices to monitor new
markets and monitor particular fields of
technology
o Reduce lead times for innovative products
o To access competitively priced resources
(labor)
o Technology transfer
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WTO ITA: Enabling
Partnerships
- What are the pre-conditions for successfully developing
international partnerships, and what constitutes current best
practice?
- How can the varying needs of ITA member economies be met?
- What areas of ICT have the greatest potential to deliver benefits
from enhanced regional and international interaction?
- Which ITA member economies have an interest in pursuing
enhanced collaboration?
- What are the potential models for enhanced collaboration?
- What role can or should WTO play in facilitating the growth of
ICT networks, collaborations and partnerships?

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o Are there policies that ITA members
may adopt to facilitate such ICT
partnerships?
o What are the strategic and tactical
challenges to such alliances and
partnerships?

WTO Information Technology Symposium, 18-19 October 2004 8

Key Challenges:
Differences in…
 Education/Training/Experience
 Infrastructure
 Financial Resources/Economic
Power
 Culture

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 Some Pre-conditions
 An accessible and responsive education and
training system, making full use of information
and communication technologies;
 Innovative businesses closely linked to the
research community;
 Research institutions which network domestically
and internationally to access complementary
knowledge, high-level skills and facilities;
 Internationally competitive incentives for high
caliber researchers; and
 Government, industry and researchers who are
emphatically forward-looking, assessing possible
technology paths systematically and prioritising
accordingly
1st APEC Science and Technology Policy Forum,
Chair’s Summary, Penang, Malaysia, 8-9 October 2001 .
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Areas and Examples
 Education and training, HRD,
accreditation (E-Learning, Project
Management, Health)
 Pre-competitive (transportation,
agriculture, nanotechnologies, non-
human genomics, marine bio-
resources )

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Areas and Examples of Our
Efforts
 Common/public good – health,
environment, food, sustainable
development, children’s issues,
gender and development, remote
area power services; flooding in
urban areas; rural
telecommunications
 Information exchange, in
general, through ICT (E-Learning,
electronic discussion forum)
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Examples of Other Possible
Opportunities for Collaboration
o Research & education ICT network
infrastructure
o E-Government
o R&D Centers for Excellence
o Use of Open Source Software (OSS)

WTO Information Technology Symposium, 18-19 October 2004 13

Research and education ICT
network infrastructure
A network to link academe, research, and
government institutions through a nationwide and
international (regional and worldwide) broadband
network to enable R&D collaboration among
various ICT and S&T organizations.

One of the most urgent requirements for several

developing countries is to fast-track the
establishment of high performance network
services for research and development, and for
enhanced collaboration.

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E-Government
Such opportunities for partnership and
collaboration in the pursuit of e-Government
exist not only within a nation, but among
nations as well. Countries can learn from
each other’s experiences on how to
effectively implement e-Government
projects. Moreover, it is possible that a
successful e-Government project in one
country can be replicated in another country
with some minor modifications.

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R&D Centers of Excellence
A mechanism for industry, academe and
government, and international cooperation for
technology and capability development. This R&D
and training center will be a conduit for developing
the technologies required, and a place of
convergence for technopreneurs, investors,
businesspeople, engineers, scientists and
technologists. The center will address the need to
facilitate technology transfer agreements with
companies, abroad and here, local and foreign
academe, and to fast track the dissemination of
technological capabilities to the private sector

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Use of Open Source
Software (OSS)
OSS refers to software that is developed, tested, or improved
through public collaboration and distributed with the idea that it
must be shared with others, ensuring open future
collaboration.
Open software is an especially useful tool to allow developing
countries and economies in transition to leapfrog into the
information age. It encourages novel development models
that have been demonstrated to be particularly well suited to
take advantage of the work of developers collaborating across
the Internet.
In general, it also has a positive impact as an enabler for the
creation of new markets and business opportunities.
Government, in partnership with industry and society, has a
key role to play in the debate on the viability of OSS, as
government is the largest procurer of ICT in most economies.

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How does one set-up
and manage successful
partnerships?

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Step 1 - Building
Consensus/Negotiation
o What are the possible and desirable
outcomes?
o Clearly determine the economy’s/firm’s
needs from the partnership
o Clearly understand the strategic
objectives of the economy/firm
o Partner choice and negotiation
o Identify a champion
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Things to consider
o Partnership negotiation
- Negotiate a suitable agreement
- Agreement template
o Treat the partnership agreement as a
living document
o Understand that the comparative
advantages of partners at the outset of the
agreement may change over time

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More things to consider
o Problems related to the dynamic changes
in the relationship

o Partnership agreements must contain

sound provisions for dispute resolution,
and the exit mechanism to be employed in
terminating the partnership in the event of
irreconcilable differences

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International Strategy-
Related Concerns
 Export rights
 Tax issues
 Dividend and investment policies
 Partner size differences

N. Vonortas and M. Hamdi, "Partnerships and Networking

in Science and Technology for Development," United
Nations, New York and Geneva 2002.

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Step 2 - Planning Stage
o Rules on assigning credit
o Establishing rules for data (including
format, quality assurance, storage,
access and retrieval)
o How to synchronize funding from
different sources
o Costs of collaboration

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Sensitive Issues

o Be aware that technology transfer is

one of the most sensitive and
contentious issues. Create clear
provisions for a framework of
technology use in the partnership
o Concerns on ownership, IP and
control

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IP Issues
 There was a clear finding that issues
arising from the management of IP
can present serious barriers to the
development and maintenance of S&T
networks. There is a need to develop
common protocols for IP
management.

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Step 3
Design of an organization
that could achieve the
desired outcomes

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Organizational Modes of
Strategic Alliance
o Joint ventures
o Joint R&D pacts
o Joint development agreements
o R&D pacts
o R&D Contracts
o Second-sourcing
o Licensing
N. Vonortas and M. Hamdi, "Partnerships and Networking in Science and Technology for Development,"
United Nations, New York and Geneva 2002
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Concerns on Organizational
Mode
o Stability vs. Flexibility
o Equity agreements vs. non-equity
agreements/contractual agreements
o Formal vs. Informal Partnership
o Choice of mode of alliance is affected by
the tradeoff between minimizing
organizational complexity and maximizing
control over the alliance by each partner.

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 Organizational Structure
 Secretariat,
administrative functions,
project management
 Host country
 Process
 Legal
 Budget

From OECD secretariat’s introduction to Mr. Eric James’ paper

Establishing International Scientific Collaborations: Lessons
Learned from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, February
2002

WTO Information Technology Symposium, 18-19 October 2004 29

Step 4
Implementation Stage

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Implementation Issues
o Monitor and review the partnership
throughout its lifetime
o Phased projects with achievable
milestones
o Start with a pilot project
o Project monitoring across national
boundaries, how to manage these?
o Scheduling regular face-to-face meetings
o Communicate often
o Rotating leadership
o Human resource issues
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 THANK YOU!

Dr. Delfin Jay M. Sabido IX

jsabido@imiphil.com

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