The Executive Forum on National Export Strategies started in
September 1999 as an innovative experiment in South-South technical
cooperation. On the shores of Lake Geneva, we gathered together
leading strategy-makers and business people from 30 developing and
transition countries for three days of intensive brainstorming. We
hoped to develop some guidelines for best practice in designing and
managing a national export strategy. In a commercial world where
big fish eat little fish, but where fast fish quickly leave the
slow fish behind-big or small-we felt that by working together we
could perhaps give some slower fish the strategic tools to swim a
lot faster-and help them to go in the proper direction.
ITC has a long history of practical work with developing
countries, giving managers of public and private sector trade
support institutions (TSIs) the information and tools they need to
assist local companies to be better exporters. We have a good track
record of providing market data and studies, operating guidelines
and training kits to our developing country partners. All of these
are worked out in close conjunction with institutions in the
countries themselves, so that we are not just passing on knowledge,
but also using and developing local expertise in a true
partnership. We do not carry out this effort alone. In many cases
we work with others in the United Nations family.
The product-network approach
Our concern is not just to produce these competitiveness support
products, but to ensure that national trade support institution
networks receive the backing to adapt our competitiveness tool kit
to local requirements. This is our product-network approach - and
it is working. By the end of 2001, specialized product-networks
were operating in more than 120 developing countries and economies
in transition.
The Executive Forum represents the next step in the
product-network approach. Its objective is to build on these
operational support tools and to develop best-practice scenarios at
the strategic level. The Executive Forum itself was innovative
because it was aimed at the strategy-maker rather than the
practitioner, and deliberately gathered together government, TSI
and business community leaders. We recognized that it was not
enough to simply assemble TSI executives, because few of them play
the pivotal role in conceiving and developing strategy.
At the same time, we realized that they are key to strategy
implementation and therefore must be brought into the picture at
the earliest possible stage, as should the business community. We
also recognized that our network partners in developing and
transition countries not only need best-practice guidelines for
putting together a strategy; they also have a great deal of
grass-roots experience to share. For its part, ITC needed to tap
into this knowledge to learn what it should be doing to help
improve the national strategy-making process. In what became the
pattern for subsequent Executive Forums, the emphasis was on
analysis, experience-sharing and networking. We also deliberately
avoided being prescriptive in approach.
Changing perceptions of trade promotion
The first Executive Forum, which focused on the theme Redefining
Trade Promotion: the Need for a Strategic Response, was an
experiment because, at that time, trade promotion strategy-making
was not a priority concern for developing countries. Even three
years later, very few developing countries have put a national
export strategy in place. However, the reali-zation is growing
among trade promotion organizations and specialized TSIs that a
strategic approach is critical.
To provide a starting point for discussions we presented
participants with a number of case studies setting out the
strategies which successful exporting countries in the
industrialized or developing world (whether Finland or the
Philippines) had adopted. All of this was available on our web site
(http://www.intracen.org/execforum)
well before the consultation. The lessons are still valid and the
case studies continue to be available on our web site.
Redefining roles and strategies
The three days of discussions made it clear that to keep up with
the rapidly changing environment, national strat-egies must be
redefined and TSIs must embrace new roles. In order to be
effective, a national export strategy must be comprehensively
integrated into the overall economic planning framework. It should
not simply deal with developing commercial opportunities in
international markets. It should also encompass the longer-term
"border-in" challenge of establishing a national competitiveness
framework which would create an export culture, sharpen business
competitiveness and develop new export industries. The experiment
was a success. The relevance of an export strategy which addressed
"border-in" and "border-out" issues was acknowledged. The notion of
a global network of global strategy-makers was born.
Expanding the Executive Forum reach
One clear concern among strategy-makers in developing and
transition economies was the national challenge posed by the global
digital revolution. For some, simply getting an overall picture of
the new e-world of commerce was difficult, let alone predicting the
future, or seeing what strategy-makers should be doing to make
their exporting community e-aware and e-competent.
Export Development in the Digital Economy became the theme of
Executive Forum 2000, and the ITC network was broadened to include
national strategy-makers concerned with developing
telecommunications strategies. Equally important was the fact that
we applied cyber-technology ourselves to extend our outreach and to
stimulate further development of our network. A series of
e-discussions was organized to support the Executive Forum debate.
Some 600 participants from 85 countries joined in. What started out
as a single event was already turning into a network of interested
professionals. It also gave us a pattern we could apply to other
ITC activities, such as the Business Sector Round Table organized
for the United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries
in May 2001 in Brussels, Belgium.
Ensuring the network promotes trade
Executive Forum 2001 tackled strategy implementation: the
logical follow-up to such concerns. Of course, an effective
strategy formulation process is essential. It is also fundamentally
important to ensure that the formulated strategy addresses major
shifts in business practice, such as e-trade. But the proof of the
pudding is in the eating. Is strategy effectively implemented? That
was the focus of the Executive Forum 2001 debate, which posed the
question: Is Your Trade Support Network Working?
Different national approaches to implementing strategies were
analysed. Mr. David Syz, the Swiss Secretary of State for Economic
Affairs, explained in detail why Switzerland has devolved
responsibility for trade support services to the private
sector.
From Canada, we heard how the federal Government has segmented
the business community into "potential", "preparing" and
"experienced" exporter categories and has established separate
institutional networks for each group, all linked in
cyberspace.
Going international
The key point made in all discussions was that one size doesn't
fit all in developing strategic solutions in trade promotion. But
the strategy-maker must be aware of all the options. Who should
coordinate the national trade support network? How should it be
financed? Is the one-stop shop approach (or, in cyberspace, the
one-stop screen) an effective model? Should trade and investment
promotion be merged into a single network?
The
challenge for the national trade promotion
organization |
The challenge confronting the national trade promotion
organization is to develop a new set of services, or to facilitate
specialized trade support institutions providing such services. The
orientation of such programmes should be towards:
- developing the overall competitiveness of the enterprise,
rather than increasing its immediate export sales;
- supporting industry associations and clusters of firms, rather
than concentrating on the individual enterprise;
- providing long-term support, rather than one-off
assistance;
- developing capabilities, both production and managerial, rather
than simply marketing competence; and
- promoting technology acquisition, investment and
subcontracting, rather than focusing on just "getting the goods out
of the country".
From Redefining Trade Promotion-the Need for a Strategic
Response (2000) |
A full exchange of ideas
Executive Forum 2001 proved a very business-like gathering, with
national groups participating in break-out sessions to outline
their priorities, needs, objectives and measures to be taken. The
2001 meeting was more than a simple dialogue. As we had always
planned, it was a full exchange of ideas among professionals on the
issues of their profession. One participant suggested that through
the Executive Forum on strategy-making, ITC was turning what had
been an art into a science.
We are not there yet. But we have certainly expanded our scope
once more. The 2001 Executive Forum was followed by the first
Regional Executive Forum at the end of November in Nairobi, Kenya.
It shared the best-practice ideas from the Montreux Executive
Forums with representatives from eight eastern and southern African
nations. It also obtained additional feedback about the support
required to enable TSIs to implement strategies effectively.
Lessons learned
Similarly, this issue of Forum takes our effort a step further.
It is not so much a report on the Executive and Regional Forums,
but rather a quick panoramic look at the lessons learned in trade
promotion; from the craft firm to the strategic level. It also
offers snapshots of national, industry and company experiences that
may help our readers from all groups to understand the issues and
how the ideas apply in practice.
We were heartened to hear that readers have already used Forum
material to find their own niche in international markets and we
would like to see this issue of the magazine make a similar
contribution to better business for developing and transition
economies.
For this reason, the Market Profile in this issue concentrates
on artisanal products, one of the obvious sectors where rich or
poor countries have their own individual marketable products. The
message is that, if approached in the right way, it is fairly easy,
or at least possible, for a network in this sector to be effective
and efficient.
Elements of
a viable national competitiveness framework |
- A stable, predictable, macroeconomic environment for enterprise
development characterized by low budget deficits, tight inflation
control and competitive real exchange rates.
- An outward-oriented, market-friendly trade and industrial
regime emphasizing the dismantling of import controls and
tariffs.
- A proactive foreign investment strategy which targets a few
realistic sectors and host countries, views overseas promotional
offices as public-private partnerships, and provides competitive
investment incentives and streamlined investment-approval
processes.
- Sustained investment in human capital at all levels
(particularly tertiary scientific, information technology and
engineering education) and increased enterprise training (including
assistance for industry associations to launch training schemes,
information campaigns to educate firms about the benefits of
training and tax breaks for training).
- Comprehensive technology support for quality management,
productivity improvement, metrology and technical services for
small and medium-sized enterprises or SMEs (including grants to
obtain ISO 9000 certification), the creation of productivity
centres and commercialization of public technology
institutions.
- Access to ample industrial finance at competitive interest
rates through prudent monetary policy management, competition in
the banking sector, training for bank staff in assessing SME
lending risks and specialist soft loans for SMEs.
- An efficient and cost-competitive infrastructure with respect
to air and sea cargo, telecommunications, Internet access and
electricity.
Contributed to the 1999 Executive Forum by Ganeshan
Wignaraja of the Commonwealth Secretariat, London. |
New ITC book and CD-ROM
In a forthcoming publication on the more strategic complex
questions, we will set out the broader considerations at greater
length.
This is the third in our series of Executive Forum publications,
and will also include a CD-ROM of useful material from the three
Forums held so far. The CD-ROM will be arranged in an easy-to-use
format for all strategy-makers. With all of these products, we hope
to export the network idea well beyond the borders of trade support
institutions and bring businesses, as well as government ministry
planners, within the net of strategy development and
implementation.
We believe that without a network linked by continuous dialogue,
any trade promotion effort, particularly one focused on poverty
alleviation-something more and more donor organizations are
beginning to demand-is bound to fail. Of course, we would rather
have them succeed; certainly our future development of the
Executive Forum process will be designed to help move developing
and transition economies along the path to success. To produce this
result, we will keep working our network-and keep our network
working.
The Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (seco) has been
our solid partner for the last two Executive Forums. I wish to
thank them publicly for their ongoing support. Certainly seco is at
the centre of the ITC network.
J. Denis Bélisle is Executive Director of ITC.