In the framework of the Czech Republic’s EU presidency Masaryk University in Brno, CITT partner First Innovation Park and others organised an EU project information and brokerage event on April 30, 2009, where I had the honour and pleasure to speak. The hall was full, people interested and attentive. Allow me therefore this time to comment myself.
Originally I planned to talk about chances and risks in R&D and EU activities in Central Europe, but facing the present economic situation I thought I should rather offer general information on what is happening in the ICT markets in the region.
I also permitted myself to include a clear commitment to Europe at the beginning of my presentation – a permanent feature from now on. Criticising Brussels’ bureaucracy is OK – to question the European experiment as such is simply wrong – just look at the map: European patchwork vs. China and the US. Not to forget: We have been hitting each others’ heads for centuries – up to only about 60 years ago. Now most of us can rely on a common currency and virtually no borders – for the first time in history…
And: “Brussels” is not an extraterrestrial bunch of maniacs, but the representatives of all member states – what they invent, comes from your or your or your country…
The ICT industry is, of course, affected by the “crisis” as well as all other industries. But in ICT, the trends are very heterogeneous. Market researchers and ICT associations give a basically positive outlook, with a mixed or slightly pessimistic mood, e.g. in Germany, and a more optimistic one for Austria, and very heterogeneous forecasts when it comes to big multinationals: MS or Nokia show negative results, SAP changed from optimistic to bad within a week, the chip and printed circuit board manufacturers don’t do too well, but e.g. Austria’s AT&S is better off than others. Generally, for 2009, IDC and others forecast some growth in CEE, in the best case about 9% (!), in a worst case scenario about 3-4%. This was the main point of my presentation, and I hope it stays valid.
I also told people about the ICT hot spots in the Centrope countries Austria, the Czech and Slovak Republics and Hungary, as there were quite a few participants from outside the EU, and gave them an overview on strengths and weaknesses of the national ICT industries. There’s also an appendix on R&D spending.
You can download my presentation and the others too.
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