RCI Regional Competitiveness Initiative Promotes Best Practices

RCI Replication of Activities
Regionalization
of
successful
Project Management (PM) Initiative – Serbia to the Region
For workforce development RCI has supported local individuals
bilateral
approaches
to get PM training and certification and, as a result, double the
amount of people receiving assistance. After the success of the
pilot, RCI developed a report “Regional Project Management
Capacity Assessment” (rciproject.com/rcibhreports.html) which
highlighted needs and interest from several countries. RCI is
now initiating a replication of the PM activities in Albania and
Bosnia and Herzegovina, and three more (Moldova, Macedonia
and Kosovo) are interested to be included in 2011.
eBiz Projects - Macedonia to Bosnia and Herzegovina
In 2007, USAID Bosnia and Herzegovina participated in the
RCI Regional IT Conference, where one of the best practices
shown was the Macedonia eBiz Project with activities in tex-
RCI, throughout its existence, tiles, shoe manufacturing and tourism. After this visit and further
has been innovative and often activity development in partnership with the Norwegian Gov-
introduced different economic ernment, the eBiz program was replicated in Bosnia and Her-
development activities that add zegovina as the Excellence in Innovation Project (ei-bih.ba).
value to existing country
programs, are picked up as a Quality Mark (QM) tourism standards – Bulgaria to Albania
and Macedonia
new activity or are replicated in
In 2007, RCI looked into the successful USAID program in Bul-
other countries. Some of these
garia on standards in tourism - the Quality Mark (QM), focused
examples are presented here.
on small hotels and B&Bs. The QM added value to the old star
system by standardizing a hotel’s service, management, and
environmental policies. RCI developed guidebooks and held
awareness events throughout the region. In 2010, the USAID
Albania Rritje Project and Exploring Macedonia each took on
the QM initiative. Other countries have expressed interest. In
Macedonia, the EBRD TAM/BAS project contributed funds to
start the program there.
ITMark / CMMI, IT companies’ training and certification
standards – Bulgaria to the Region
RCI has been a leader in the region in the development of the
IT sector from the beginning of the project. In 2007, building on
our successful program of IT training and certification of com-
panies in ITMark and CMMI, the regional German assistance
GTZ ORF Programme also supported these efforts. By cost
sharing with GTZ, RCI was able to increase the number of
companies and countries assisted.
The RCI project is implemented by SEGURA/IP3 Partners.

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RCI Western Balkans Supplement
!"#$#%&'()%*+),+-%+"') Overview
In partnership with National Geographic Traveler (NGT) and
./01/'-)/-)/)%#2"&-$) through cost-sharing with regional USAID missions and pro-
3+-%&'/%&#') jects, the RCI Project finalized in May 2010 the Western Bal-
kans supplement “Land of Discovery: 46 Outstanding Ways to
Experience Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Mace-
donia, Montenegro and Serbia”.
www.rciproject.com/tourismng.html

The supplement was conceptualized and developed through
roundtable discussions and familiarization trips throughout the
region. The sites were chosen according to the following key
themes:
• Historical / World Heritage Sites and ruins;
• Unique villages / towns;
• Churches, cathedrals, monasteries and mosques;
• Art and museums;
• Festivals and celebrations;
• Local music / musical instruments;
RCI collaborated with National • Outdoor markets / specialty stores / boutiques;
Geographic Traveler and USAID • Distinctive foods or dishes, cafes and restaurants;
missions in the Western Balkans • Unique crafts, wood, glass, fabric, etc.;
to produce this regional tourism • Beaches, lakes, parks and gardens;
promotion tool. • Resorts and spas, B&Bs, agri-tourism;
• Outdoor activities (hiking, biking, skiing);
• Wildlife, birds, fish, animals, etc.

Coverage
The NGT Western Balkans supplement was disseminated with
the May / June 2010 issue of the National Geographic Maga-
zine and Traveler to about 240,000 subscribers from the UK,
Netherlands and Germany.

What next?
Building on the success of the Western Balkans supplement,
RCI is looking into continuing the cooperation with National Ge-
ographic in several areas, such as possible supplement fo-
cused on the Caucasus region and development of NG
Geotourism web sites for the RCI region.
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Regional Competitiveness Initiative Website
Overview The website pools together a broad range of RCI resources. In addi-
tion to background information on RCI, the website contains:

• Sector-specific information on RCI activities in IT, tourism, agri-
business and workforce development;
• Scopes of work for RCI and other USAID competitiveness pro-
jects in Europe and Eurasia;
• All research papers produced under RCI, as well as agendas and
presentations from RCI events since 2005;
• Archived RCI newsletters, as well as RCI news items on the front
page;
• Front-page links to World Economic Forum competitiveness rank-
ings for RCI countries;
• Competitiveness studies from various think tanks and research
institutes;
• A thematic calendar of events to promote information-sharing and
coordination.
In May 2010, RCI launched its
Designed to serve the region, the RCI website is a work in progress
website, www.rciproject.com. that will evolve according to the needs of regional stakeholders. The
The goal of the website is to interest of those stakeholders since the website’s inception has been
allow E&E missions, projects, very strong. In its few short months of operation, the RCI website has
been visited 2023 times by 1146 different people. 63.82% of those
and stakeholders to access and visitors viewed more than one page. Other data collected about the
share information on regional RCI website include:
competitiveness.
Most Viewed Pages
• 6,223 page-views, 4,643 unique views;
• The most viewed page is the home page (43%), followed by the
Sarajevo event main page (5%), USAID scopes of work (5%),
and Sarajevo Reports (2%).

Geographic Origin
• E&E region (over 35%);
• The U.S. (44%).

Traffic Source
• 52% have come from direct traffic (e.g., clicking the link in email
announcements, or typing the address directly);
• 26% from sites linking to the RCI website;
• 21% from search engines. Keywords include “rci project”, “region-
al competitiveness”, and “rci usaid”.


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"#$!"%&%'()*!'+,!-+'./&0&!
One of RCI’s tasks as a Below is a summary list of reports developed in recent years
regional project is to research under the Regional Competitiveness Initiative:
and analyze the most current • At the 2008 RCI Annual Event in Budva, Montenegro, RCI
economic issues, then present presented the report “Competitiveness in the Europe and
opinions and possible solutions Eurasia Region: Past, Present and Future”, by Neal Na-
to the regional USAID thanson from USAID Washington, who then updated the re-
Missions, Projects and other port into “Europe and Eurasia Region: An Overview of
local stakeholders. USAID Supported Competitiveness Projects”.
! • At the 2009 RCI Annual Event in Kyiv, Ukraine, with the
global economic and financial crisis affecting the region,
RCI focused on this most urgent topic with “Causes of the
Crisis, Its Transmission to Eastern Europe, and Impacts on
Economic and Social Conditions”, presented by Dr. Paul
Marer from the Central European University in Budapest.
• At that same event, RCI presented the reports “Technology
and Innovation Competitiveness in Eastern and Southeast-
ern Europe” by Goran Radman, former South East Europe
Director for Microsoft and “Workforce Competitiveness in
the Next Decade” by Dr. Eric Butler.
• At the 2010 RCI Annual Event in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Her-
zegovina, Dr. Paul Marer presented an update on the global
crisis with “The Global Economic Crises: Impact on Eastern
Europe” and “The Greece-Euro Crises and their impacts in
Eastern Europe”.
• Other interesting presentations were made on efforts to
overcome the crisis by Dr. Krassen Stanchev from the Insti-
tute for Market Economics, “Coming Out of the Crisis: Cau-
casus, Moldova and Ukraine”, and by Dr. Dragana Radevic
from CEED Consulting Montenegro, “Coming out of the
Global Economic Crisis: Current Status, Effects, and Re-
sponses - Sub-regional focus on the Western Balkans”.
• RCI also develops sector-specific reports. In 2009 for in-
stance, at a workshop on workforce development activities
in Macedonia, RCI presented “USAID Macedonia Workforce
Development Assessment: Taking Steps toward a 21st
Century Workforce” by Dr. Eric Butler.
All of these reports and many more can be found on the RCI website -
www.rciproject.com. Feel free to use them in your work and dissemi-
nate to your partners and clients.

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"#$!%&'()*+!,$-!./01)*/!
!"#$"%#&' In May 2010, RCI, in collaboration with the European Software
Institute (ESI) Center for Eastern Europe, launched the website
www.quality2it.org - a platform for regional capacity in IT Train-
ing and Certification. The main objective of this website is to
support the establishment of an Excellence Network for Eastern
Europe and promote cooperation and partnership between IT
training and certification service providers.

The website features:

• A catalogue of Excellence Centers and Service providers of
IT training and certification services;
• The quality services that can be found within the network
are in areas of: Strategic Management, Operational Man-
agement, Project Management, Software Development PI,
ICT Services PI, Information Security, Vendor Specific and
University programs;
• 31 quality service organizations as members of the net-
work, which are registering more than 60 training and/or
certification services;
• Organizations from 15 countries: Albania, Armenia, Azer-
baijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Georgia, Croatia,
Kosovo, Moldova, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia,
Turkey and Ukraine;
• A news section where registered organizations can share
information about their events/ trainings, success stories, in-
troduction of new services, project implementation, etc.

The site has a user-friendly interface both for the compnies that
presents their products and services and for potential clients
interested in purchasing them.
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"#$!%&'!()%*+,-!$.!/0*),+0&1!
!"#$%#$%&'(&)*+,#-.&/0,*-#0$1& SIGMA-SB dooel – Skoje was founded in 1995. The firm has
-0&12+,,&+$3&243#*2& been successful in the development and the deployment of all-
in-one systems -- planning, design, and implementation of
4$-4"5"#141&#$&6*"054&+$3& complete cutting-edge IT solutions to improve the business
6*"+1#+& processes of its clients. The technical excellence of the firm re-
sulted in the rapid growth of its business, but on an organiza-
tional level the company faced serious challenges.
A small business in Macedonia
talks about how training A possible solution was to deploy a model which would provide
improvement in the process of service delivery. The choice was
received with the assistance of
made in 2007 to get the firm IT Mark certified, with the support
USAID’s Regional of USAID’s Regional Competitiveness Initiative.
Competitiveness Initiative
“We knew that for small-l and medium-sized enterprises adopt-
helped improve the firm’s
ing world-class models such as CMMI was a lengthy and chal-
management, response time, lenging process, which required a lot of time and effort, and that
and customer satisfaction. deterred us from initiating a CMMI-based process improvement
program,” said Slavcho Boujarski, general manager of the firm.
“So when ESI Center Bulgaria in the framework of the USAID-
funded RCI program presented to us the IT Mark methodology,
which is based on the concept of subdividing the CMMI path
into a series of smaller objectives, we recognized its affordabil-
ity – we could achieve the milestones with moderate efforts and
in a shorter period of time.”
Just after its first IT Mark certification, Sigma SB signed two
new contracts in which the firm was able use its newly acquired
skill to plan and guarantee product delivery to the client.
Major benefits reported by the company management included:
increased customer satisfaction with the quality of work (less
bugs and better fulfillment of the requirements); shortened re-
sponse time; the ability to provide new higher-level services;
and the development of new services.
Building on this success, the company continued its process
improvement program after the project with RCI was complet-
ed. In 2010 the company achieved a higher level of certification,
“IT Mark Premium”, and planned to become certified for CMMI
maturity Level 2 in 2011.
The RCI project is implemented by SEGURA/IP3 Partners.!

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RCI Improves IT Competitiveness
Leveraging Resources to RCI and its regional IT partner ESI Center Bulgaria/Eastern Eu-
rope have developed and implemented a specific model to
Improve IT support IT training and certification activities, while leveraging
Competitiveness in the co-funding from other donors and partners.
E&E Region RCI’s model is part of a systematic approach used to support
regional competitiveness. It is based on the IT Competitiveness
Pyramid, which is used to assist regional clusters of firms to
improve their processes and obtain the internationally recog-
nized certifications, CMMI and IT Mark. All activities are imple-
One of the major objectives of mented in partnership with regional stakeholders from donor
RCI is to ensure the sustaina- organizations, business associations, firms and individuals.
bility of ICT activities and to These stakeholders provide a significant part of the financing
obtain commitment from other for and offer further support after the initial pilot projects.
stakeholders and donors in the
region to the activities per- The participation of other stakeholders not only leverages the
formed. RCI funds spent on the program but also ensures strong com-
mitment and long-term sustainability for the initiatives.
The first programs based on the IT Competitiveness Pyramid
were launched in 2005-2007. They have impacted the whole
region and proved their sustainability:
• After the completion of the USAID program in Bulgaria, oth-
er programs such as EBRD Business Advisory Services
Program and the Bulgarian Competitiveness Program,
funded by EU, continued their support for the CMMI /IT
Mark initiative. The ESI Center Bulgaria has become a re-
gional excellence center in Eastern Europe and the Cauca-
sus.
• The RCI IT program in Macedonia was recognized as a de-
velopment model for the region. In 2008 the German GTZ
decided to fund a large-scale regional program based on
the original RCI model, which supported more than 50 firms
from six countries.
• RCI activities in Moldova were implemented in partnership
with local firms and the CEED project funded by USAID.
This not only contributed to the overall competitiveness of
the Moldovan IT sector but also resulted in the creation of
the excellence center for IT QLab that will develop local ca-
pacity for IT training and certification in Moldova.

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"#$!$%&'()*+,))!-,.)*/,!
!"#$"%#&' The website features:
• 48 IT companies presenting 111 of their own products and
solutions for different economic sectors, including tourism
and travel, agribusiness, furniture, food, textiles, medicine /
pharmaceutical, banking / finance, building, manufacturing
and automotive;
• Solutions presented by companies from 15 countries – Al-
bania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bul-
garia, Georgia, Croatia, Kosovo, Moldova, Macedonia,
Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey and Ukraine;
• A paper version of the web catalogue with a circulation
In May 2010, RCI, in collabora- 1400 copies. Of those, over 1300 copies are disseminated
tion with the European Soft- to companies and industrial associations in Eastern Europe
ware Institute (ESI) Center for and the Caucasus;
Eastern Europe, launched the • Three companies, which shared feedback and acknowl-
website www.it2business.org, edgment that, through the IT2Business catalogue, they
started successful business relations with companies from
a platform for cross sector links
other countries or sectors.
between ICT solution develop-
ers and companies from other
Most Viewed Pages
economic sectors. The goal of
this website is the worldwide • 6540 visits;
promotion in different econom- • The most viewed page is the catalogue and search page
ic sectors of successful IT (40%), followed by the home page (8%), welcome note
products and solutions devel- (15%), and resources repository (10%).
oped by regional (Eastern Eu-
rope and Caucasus) Traffic Source
companies. • 62% have come from direct traffic (e.g., clicking the link in
! email announcements, or typing the address directly);
• 20% redirected links from partners sites - RCI, ICT associa-
tions and companies in Moldova, Armenia, Bosnia and Her-
zegovina, Romania, the ESI Center Bulgaria site,
www.quality2it.org0 etc.;
• 17% from search engines.
• The average time spent in the site is 3.25 minutes with a
peak time of 24 minutes.
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RCI: Excellence in IT
!"#$"%#&' Events and Statistics
RCI, in cooperation with its partner the European Software In-
stitute (ESI) Center for Eastern Europe, has three kinds of
events related to excellence and certification: awareness, train-
ing, and appraisals. The events took place in 13 countries in
Southeast and Eastern Europe and the Caucasus.
Summary statistics for the period June 2005 – October 2010:
• Excellence events: 67
• Companies involved in the excellence events: 413
One of RCI’s most strategic • Companies certified: 37
sectors is information technol- • Excellence trainees and participants: 1,777
ogy (IT). RCI is a leader in de- • Qualified individuals: 827
veloping IT in each country and • Associations involved in the excellence activity: 11
enhancing competitiveness in
Feedback from participant companies:
the Western Balkans and the
• 82% of companies increased their competitiveness by more
Caucasus. One of the main
than 20%;
activities RCI supports is the
• 85% of firms reported increased client satisfaction and 58%
excellence of IT companies
reported decreased “time to market”;
through training and certifica-
tion. The result is that the IT • 37% of companies reported sales increase of 20%-50% due
companies improve their or- to the CMMI / ITMark implementation program.
ganization, processes and Testimonials from Beneficiaries
products, which leads to higher “The most visible result we have seen is having real-time re-
productivity and expanded porting on what is really happening within our company. Our
business opportunities. managers have online access to all of their projects and can
! instantly see which tasks are on time, which are lagging behind
schedule so they can push the team or add more resources to
the team to get the task done on time.”
IT Company from Macedonia
“When implementing ITMark and as recommended by CMMI
we introduced a new practice in our work with banks: When we
receive requirements we create a prototype of our vision of the
product and then discuss it again with the client. In 80% of the
cases our vision appeared to differ a lot from the client’s vision.
Previously this created a lot of rework. Now we can assure a
correct vision of the requirements and final product that are un-
derstood correctly by us and the clients.”
IT Company from Moldova
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RCI Events
Overview
!"#$%#$%&'(%)'*)"&")%#($+,& One of the main strategic goals of RCI is to share knowledge
-'+.)*(,/)"-&-#$0)&1223& and information across borders and regions. RCI implements
this through electronic media such as the RCI web site, quarter-
100%
90%
ly Newsletters, bi-weekly tourism & agribusiness information,
80% and the bi-monthly InfoShare. To add more value, RCI’s most
70%
60%
successful tools are the events that bring stakeholders from all
Poor
50%
40%
Fair countries and regions together to share their experiences and
30%
Good
Excellent
learn from each other.
20%
10%
0% Evaluation
Networking Quality of Materials and
opportunities presentations documentations General assessment of the usefulness of RCI events is over-
whelmingly positive.

• Relevance: 96-100% indicated that they found RCI
events relevant to their work
• Meeting expectations: 92-100% of attendees said that
events have met their expectation
• Continued interest: 93-100% of respondents are likely to
attend RCI events in the future

The different aspects of RCI meetings receive very positive rat-
ings (excellent or good at a rate of 86-96%).

Statistics
RCI is contributing to the From 2005 to 2010, RCI has organized about 50 events attended
regional dialogue on by a total of over 3500 participants, which have included
competitiveness by holding representatives of the private sector (over 40%), local
regular events ranging from governments, and USAID projects and missions.
roundtable for 10-15
practitioners on a specific topic
(agribusiness, tourism, etc.) to
&
annual events with over 100
participants.

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Global Engagement Initiative in Action
“Regional Opportunities On June 28, 2011 in Izmir, Turkey, at EBILTEM (a local university
for Growth Conference” entrepreneurship center), CEED Global and its local partner BATI-
BINOM (Western Anatolia Chamber) implemented a two day ICT
28 June, 2011 business-to-business matchmaking event - "Regional Opportunities
for Growth Conference." The B2B event was made possible by the
Izmir, Turkey Global Engagement Initiative with the support of the Regional Com-
petitiveness Initiative (RCI).

Informatics, Electronics, and Telecommunication were among the key
new technological industries represented at the event. The goal was
to establish a platform for effective collaboration and regional
integration among ICT companies from the South East Europe region.
[Insert Photo Credit]

A total of 60 companies participated at the B2B company
matchmaking of which 19 were from Eastern Europe where CEED
has offices (Bulgaria, Kosovo, Slovenia, Romania, Macedonia,
Albania, BiH), and 41 were local firms, universities and organizations.
In the morning opening session, Dr. Serdal from TEMEL presented
Turkey is the fastest growing information on business and trade development in the Izmir region.
This was followed by a presentation by Mr. Peter Statev, Chairman at
market in the region. This event the Bulgarian ICT Cluster who spoke about the IT market situation in
helped strengthen Southeast Eastern Europe, and based on his personal experience, provided the
Europe – Turkish business audience with the business know-how on how a foreign company can
contacts and highlighted open a representative office in Turkey.
opportunities for increasing trade
Later, one of the leading Turkish producers, VESTEL Electronics,
and investment. spoke about its R&D management, presenting a video demonstration
on new areas of technological involvement. The last speaker from the
Bulgarian IT Association, BASSCOM President George Brashnarov,
spoke on the topic of internationalization and cooperation.

The afternoon program continued in the form of "Speed Networking"
to increase communication and collaboration opportunities by having
prearranged face-to-face meetings with individual companies. These
15 minute meetings (80 in total) allowed company representatives to
exchange information and created the opportunity to talk in further
detail about actual business ideas.

The event resulted in 15 potential co-operation connections and post-
event contacts. Following the success of the event, the two organizing
partners CEED and BATI-BINOM agreed to continue this regional
collaborative work, and do another follow-up event focused on estab-
lishing further business partnerships. The participating companies
themselves also expressed the need for continued and deeper in-
volvement so that the regional ICT networking could further expand
and flourish.

SIX KOSOVO COMPANIES RECEIVE USAID-FUNDED GRANTS TO SUPPORT
INNOVATION

The US Agency for International On March 1 2013, the Innovation Centre Kosovo (ICK)
Development and the Norwegian recognized six startup companies that received USAID grant
Ministry of Foreign Affairs work together support to build their innovative businesses. The awardees
to finance business innovation and job include an internet service provider, a developer of educational
creation in Kosovo
software for kids, and a developer of videogames for Facebook,

iOS, Android and Windows Phone.

Designed to propel business innovation and create jobs in
Gjergj
Filipaj
Innovation
Centre
Kosovo

Kosovo, the USAID Innovation Grant Fund provides support, on
a competitive basis, of up to $5,000 to selected ICK incubator
tenants to develop their product or service and bring their
innovation to the market.

USAID Mission Director Maureen Shauket and Norwegian
Acting Ambassador Jon Hansen both spoke at the event,
highlighting the importance of accelerating business growth in
Innovation Grant Fund recipient Ms. Blerta Kosovo. “I am very pleased to be able to award grant
Thaçi of Eduapps LLC, together with USAID
certificates to the first six ICK tenant companies, two of which
Mission Director Maureen Shauket and
Acting Ambassador of the Norwegian
have women co-owners. With these grants, you will be able to
Embassy Jon Hansen at the Awards promote your businesses, test your new products and services,
Ceremony and launch your products in the market.” said Mission Director

Maureen Shauket.

The ICK Foundation was established and operates with funding
from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and managerial
and technical support from founders Athene Prosjektledelse
“We came to ICK as a group of young Norway, the Kosovo Association of Information and
students with ideas. ICK helped us develop Communication Technology (STIKK), and the main
into a functioning company with products
that are ready to be offered in the
implementing partner Crimson Capital. It is designed to assist
marketplace." Innovation Grant Fund entrepreneurs in developing innovative and commercially
recipient Ms. Blerta Thaçi of EduApps LLC. successful companies that create future-oriented jobs. ICK

provides workspace, mentoring, and training to select
entrepreneurs, and has already supported 19 companies on a
cost-shared basis.

The USAID Innovation Grant Fund is made possible via a grant
from the USAID Regional Competitiveness Initiative (RCI) to
ICK as a center of excellence, and is an example of close donor
cooperation and co-financing. Under the grant, ICK is also
providing training in Computer Aided Design (CAD) and iOS
programming to local professionals.

Opportunities are just around the corner
Many entrepreneurs today have products and services ready to
be used, but they lack connections and networks through which
Sometimes people to channel them. CEED’s main objective is to enable entrepre-
neurs and their management teams to develop their companies
conduct their search by gaining practical know-how, mentoring, peer-to-peer learn-
in multiple directions ing, and regional and international business cooperation.

including a variety of In Jan. 2013, CEED Albania launched its Top Class Program
targeted to small and medium enterprises, aiming to increase
industries and tools, their business knowledge, and expand their networks in order
but in many cases to create new business opportunities. The main goal of the
event was to introduce the participants to each other and to
solutions are found create a positive atmosphere in which new business relation-
much closer ships would breed.
This activity afforded participants the opportunity to spend a
whole day in a relaxed business environment getting to know
each other, and thus sparked many business possibilities. Even
CEED Albania started its
by the end of the first event, the participation in the Top Class
second generation of the Top
Program enabled some of the entrepreneurs to look at new
Class program by organizing business opportunities. Impress Studio, a graphic designing
Team Building. company made an agreement with the company BTC, which is
the authorized dealer of Kaspersky computer viruses for Alba-
nia, and Elite Travel, a tourism operator, for exchanging prod-
ucts and services according to their current needs.
“I am very satisfied with the organization of this first event and
people I have met. I am grateful to CEED for creating this pro-
gram and enabling me to meet with new business partners”
said Arvid Tartari, the representative of Impress Studio.
Andi Bogdani from BTC also felt that this first event exceeded
his expectations; “I have found a new partner. Impress Studio
will prepare the marketing materials for my company and at the
same time agreed to use the antivirus services that we are
providing” said Bogdani.

RCI/CEED Trip to Israel and Jordan under the Global
Engagement Initiative
Entrepreneurs hit the From 01-07 December 2012, the CEED leadership team from SEAF
led a group of 20 entrepreneurs from Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria,
ground running, not Greece, Kosovo, Romania, Slovenia, the United Kingdom, and the
ducking United States to Israel, the West Bank, and Jordan to map the land-
scape and meet visionaries, technologists, financiers, and entrepre-
neurs in three technology clusters.

With the help of the well-known Israeli investor, Yossi Vardi, and Dr.
Glenn Yago, Director the Milken Institute in Jerusalem, CEED was
able to introduce members of the group to a Who’s Who of change
makers in Israel. Erel Margalit (Founder of Jerusalem Venture Part-
ners), Bob Rosenschein (founder of Answers.com), and Jonathan

Medved (Founder of Our Crowd) were just a few of the marquee
names among the 40+ people who met in intimate surroundings with
the group to share their stories, compare experiences, and discuss
their outlooks for the future. Many sessions included new and experi-
enced entrepreneurs pitching their businesses and meeting with our
Twenty entrepreneur members of group to look for synergies and ways to work together.

the USAID-sponsored CEED In Ramallah, the team visited with entrepreneurs, investors, and gov-
program journeyed to Israel, ernment officials over a working lunch at the Movenpick Hotel. The
Palestine, and Jordan to immerse meetings opened up the team’s eyes to a wealth of talent, especially
in ICT, that the West Bank has to offer.
themselves in three different
entrepreneurial ecosystems. In Jordan, Samer Asfour, the Senior Economic Counselor to His Maj-
esty, King Abdullah II provided us with an excellent overview of the
booming tech sector in Amman. Over the next two days, the delega-
tion met with investors, entrepreneurs, and industry facilitators who all
made a convincing case to the group that Jordan can be their gate-
way to the Arabic-speaking, Middle Eastern market.

Participants left with a platinum Rolodex of contacts in all three clus-
ters. They also acquired a perspective on the opportunities and chal-
lenges involved in doing business in the Middle East.

“Being exposed to the differing ecosystems in the region was very
interesting. Juxtaposing the Israeli model with the Jordanian model
created a very tangible and visible difference in their levels of sophis-
tication, government support and general evolution. This was a fan-
tastic event!”—Jon Mooney (United States)

INVESTORS FLOCK TO SARAJEVO FOR USAID
“SEENOVATE“ ACCESS TO FINANCE EVENT
USAID is attracting investors to At “SEEnnovate,” an Access to Finance Forum in Sarajevo held
open businesses in the SEE on June 19, 2012 that was organized by RCI in coordination
region with USAID projects FIRMA, FARMA, PARE, PFS, and RCC,
with additional support by the Swedish International
Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and Centers for
Entrepreneurship and Executive Development (CEED), twenty
entrepreneurs from Bosnia and Herzegovina presented their
businesses to investors who attended the conference. At least
two of these presentations will result in investment deals.
The event gathered close to 200 participants, including

representatives of more than 30 international investments
funds, some of which were visiting Southeast Europe for the
first time. Two of the investment funds present at the event--
Meta Group from Italy and Globe Forum from Sweden-- have
decided to expand their businesses in order to support early
stage financing instruments in the region, including further
developing the venture capital industry and business angels’
networks.
The event also announced launch of the Enterprise
Development and Innovation Facility Platform (EDIF), a new
EUR 142 million (USD 192 million) instrument to support
innovative SMEs in the Western Balkans, and the EUR 100
million (USD 192 million) Venture Capital Investment Program
(VCIP) for early and growth stage companies operating in the
The event gathered close to technology sector. RCI is actively working with its regional
200 participants including partners at the institutional and local levels to prepare them to
representatives of more than apply for the incoming funding from EDIF.
30 international investments
funds, some of which were
visiting Southeast Europe for
the first time.

SUCCESS STORY:
Western Balkans Geotourism MapGuide Portal
Promoting the Western Balkans as a Overview
Tourism Destination The Western Balkans (WB) Mapguide website is a regional portal
designed by and co-branded with National Geographic. The
MapGuide project took one year to complete. It is the first regional
joint effort to promote the Western Balkans as a single destination
by highlighting the rich natural and cultural wealth of the area. The
effort was supported by the USAID RCI project, and was
implemented by the National Geographic Maps Division and the
Western Balkans Geotourism Stewardship Council (WBGSC).
WBGSC is a regional partnership of representatives from the six
participating countries - Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. WBGSC has
assumed ownership of the Mapguide and will be responsible for
its continued management.
WB Mapguide is an interactive information platform that highlights
the natural, culturaland historic attractions of Western Balkans
In June, 2012, the Western Balkans Geotourism destinations. It provides travelers with an online map that
Stewardship Council in partnership with National authentically captures and conveys the region through the eyes of
Geographic Maps Division launched in the Western the local people.
Balkans Mapguide portal (www.balkansgeotourism.travel)
During its first nine months of existence (data as of 4 March
an effort supported by RCI/ USAID
2013), the portal was visited 28,088 times by 23,826 different
people from more than 100 countries. Other data collected about
the regional portal include:
Most Viewed Pages
• 70,268 page-views; 57,446 unique views
• The most viewed page is the home page (18%), followed by the
Macedonia main page (5%), and the Interactive Map (4%).
Geographic Origin
• WB Countries – 41.12%
• U.K. – 4.6%; Germany – 3.6%; Italy – 2.52%, Netherlands – 2%
Just a few months since its launch, Google • US & Canada – 13%
demonstrates positive results for the effort– many
attractions uploaded to the portal appear on the first Traffic Source
page of search results
• 57.34% have come from search engines (keywords include
Comments on attractions posted on the portal: “It is not different events and attractions from the region)
just for the great canyons of 8 waterfalls and the • 29.36% from sites linking to the WB Mapguide Portal;
fantastic rafting experience we had, but through this • 13.30% direct traffic
adventure you can really feel the Albanian hospitality
and the spirit of the commitment of the team. U guys WB MapGuide Portal
rock! We'll come back soon.”; “Hotel Manastir is one of
most authentic hotel in Macedonia. My Folk Seminar is • 219 nominations in 11 categories
always in that hotel every summer.”

Success Story: Western Balkans MapGuide Portal

RCI Regional Competitiveness Initiative Promotes Best Practices

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