Robert Dietrich

Hello Friends!

It’s been a little while since my last update, so I’ll jump right into it.  Things have been moving fast on-site; with the heat comes activity.  I recently participated and represented Peace Corps Armenia (right before my week-long vacation) in the South Caucasus Workshop: Promoting Best Practices in ICT, Tourism and Business Services Delivery and Prospects for Regional Integration and Cooperation.  The workshop was organized by USAID, and the line-up was impressive:  Robin Phillips, Mission Director, USAID/Armenia; Maureen Dugan, Director, Office of Economic Growth, USAID/Europe & Eurasia Bureau; Filip Stoyanovich, Regional Director, USAID/Europe & Eurasia Bureau’s Regional Competitiveness Initiative; Hayley Alexander, Chief of Party, USAID/Armenia’s Competitive Armenian Private Sector project; Olin McGill, Chief of Party, USAID/Georgia’s Business Climate Reform project; Steve Eastham, Project Director for the Regional Competitiveness Initiative, USAID/Europe & Eurasia Bureau; Steve Silcox, Project Director, Business Growth Initiative, USAID/Europe & Eurasia and EGAT Bureaus – and on and on and on.  What an opportunity it was.  The people in attendance at this workshop were people leading the field in international development – the experience and insight floating around was amazing!  When looking at things at a macro-level, there are so many opportunities for regional integration and collaboration to increase and enhance opportunities for just about all stakeholder groups within the Caucasus.  Just the networking opportunities alone this conference facilitated and enabled were worth all the time and effort it took to pull this workshop together.  That was the most valuable deliverable, I feel, this workshop facilitated.  Beyond facilitating interactive dialogue on the subject of national competitiveness, regional competitiveness, ICT, tourism, business services delivery and a hard look at case studies of successful developmental implementations within each of these delineated focus areas, the workshop helped build bridges between individuals who stand to benefit through collaboration and information sharing at a high-level – it also opened a lot of eyes, I believe, on possibilities in ICT, tourism and business services delivery.  The opportunities right now are enormous; it just takes some sound strategic planning, momentum and action to get things rolling in the right direction.  As a takeaway, I received almost a gigabyte of World Economic Forum data, Caucasus country-specific economic information, case studies, presentations, etc. that I’ve been networking like mad.  If anyone is interested in this information, contact me!

Specific to Armenia, there were some outcomes and information that I’ll briefly touch on.  At a governmental level, it was exciting to find out that a National Competitiveness Council of Armenia (NCCA) has been organized, which Gayane Afrikyan is now the Executive Director of.  She spoke briefly on their plans, goals and objectives and their institutional approach for enhancing Armenia’s global competitiveness.  NCCA will be the engine for developing the five identified priority areas for development according to the most recent government strategic plan (2008-2012):  regional center for business excellence, regional resort center, regional financial center, regional health center, regional center for education.  The Council will also tackle the challenge of upgrading the country’s global position in two main categorical areas:  reaching the level of medium income countries, and raising the ranking of Armenia within the WEF (World Economic Forum) global rankings (specifically within the Global Competitiveness category); currently (2007-2008) Armenia ranks 93 out of 131 countries.  By 2010-2012, the Council aims to have Armenia in the top 60 or 70 in the WEF rankings for global competitiveness. 

Another outcome was a call to focus on “ruthless transactional efficiency,” by Olin McGill, Chief of Party for USAID/Georgia’s Business Climate Reform project.  This was one of those ‘bottom lines’ that we need to constantly return to in measuring success and progress, and I think it registered with some of the participants working in this region. 

Susan Warren, a tourism consultant for USAID/Europe & Eurasia’s Regional Competitiveness Initiative presented on some of her work and experience, as well as highlighting the need for tourism destinations to promote and foster authentic experiences categorically (in hospitality, cuisine, ambience, activities, etc.).  There was a general consensus that Armenia is a fragmented tourism destination that doesn’t have a well formed brand identity, and isn’t organized in a way that is conducive toward marketing the destination to its multifarious consumer market segments.   She also presented on the need to bring quality to services here, and understand the impetus that drives the various consumer market segments to come here.  Often times, tourists come to Armenia to have a culturally authentic experience, and the tourism industry should focus on organizing an offering that satiates that cultural palette rather than starving it by divorcing tourists from what they came here to experience.  There’s a lot to do in tourism.  Susan will be delivering a concept note to the CAPS project here that will be added into a strategic plan, which will be presented in the near future to the ATDA and the Armenian govt.  I’ll look forward to posting that for all of you when it becomes available.

Steven Eastham, Project Director for RCI, then built on the tourism discussion by discussing the “Total Experience” that must be focused on in analyzing a tourism experience.  The pre-trip phase is one of the most important stages, as expectations are being set, and there is a very real need to provided focused, relevant and branded information to tourists that are in-sync with their desires as a part of a distinct market segment.  He discussed how it’s important to growth the overall “product offering,” through providing new routes out of the usual roosts, responsible tourism and knowing your “clients” expectations.  He highlighted some problematic areas for Armenia that need to be ameliorated before the country can flourish as a high-yielding tourism destination. 

Mike Ducker from J.E. Austin & Associates presented on ICT and Armenia’s opportunities for engaging external markets through niche marketing.  He then covered some interesting possibilities for IT being an enabling force for instigating growth within the agricultural industry.

And on and on.  It was a great conference.  If you all have any questions on the materials, presentations or outcomes, please email me or visit www.businessgrowthinitiative.org for additional information.

I have a couple of other potential projects that are at a standstill because of slow-coming or frozen USAID money that has yet to clear delivery.  The recent political turmoil threw a wrench in the works and we’re at a snail’s pace in getting project funds on a local and national level.  On a higher note, the US Embassy’s Democracy Commission is interested in a continuation of the Gegharkunik Marz Independent Print Media Empowerment Project.  We’ll be meeting to discuss the potential year-long extension this next week – we’ve already got some ideas for building on the results of the marketing plan we’ve implemented and are excited to be moving forward!  We’re in the process of analyzing the results of our second round of survey research to compare with our benchmarks.  I’ll have the final report ready by early August and will post it then.  Anyway, while all the grant projects are in the process of moving forward, I’ve been doing general business consulting, continuing to move forward on prior initiatives and evolving my role and deliverables with the businesses I continue to work with.  I’ll get into detail on some of those businesses some other time.

I also had the chance to meet a family I’ve been in correspondence with, the Vartanians, hailing all the way from California.  Evelyne and Vardan took time out of their first trip to their home here in Armenia to bring donations up to me at my site in Sevan – what a great family!  They brought out some books for the Sevan State College, and a laptop to be used for the on-loan program I put together.  No one was more excited than the second youth-in-need to benefit from a loaned out laptop, Zhenia Arakelyan.  After the initial “contract period” has expired, we’ll test progress and decide whether an extension is warranted.  There are plenty of individuals who will benefit from the Vartanians benevolence and I’m looking forward to really expanding this program to assist aspiring professionals in attaining basic computer literacy, typing skills and competency in MS Office.  People like the Vartanians make this all a reality; they’re good people, for sure, and I’m glad to know them.

I’m also beginning preparations for the business classes I’ll be teaching at Gavar State University beginning in September.  I’m excited about that and thanks again to Laura Mayberry for donating the course work and book resources to allow me to get my lesson plans sorted out.

I’ve got lots of other things to touch on but will save a little for my next post. I hope all is well with you all.  Keep in touch!!!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 at 12:15 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.