'Cooperation beats competition'

Educational player STC Training of Pembroke has championed new ways of collaborative working in the ICT sector, along the lines of a successful Swedish initiative. This was the main conclusion of a recent talk at STC by Jeannette Waax, a cluster manager at Fibre Optic Valley, Sweden.

Fibre Optic Valley, set up as an NGO in 1999, is aimed at creating an innovative climate in which companies can develop ground-breaking products and services based on fibre optics and broadband.

It promotes cooperation among 60 ICT industries and research institutes in an 'innovation zone' that has seen high investment within a fibre optic infrastructure. The region is widely regarded as Sweden's Silicon Valley.

There was no reason, Ms Waax said, why Malta, with its widespread broadband networks and ideal test-bed environment, could not replicate the Swedish model.

However, she said Malta's ICT sector needed to realise that "cooperation beats competition".

It was this concept, she said, that underpinned Fiber Optic Valley's success.

Collaborative working practices in the valley included the sharing of research results, labs and production facilities.

This cooperation had released untapped potential, driven innovation and enabled firms to become entrepreneurial and reach overseas markets.

"Fibre Valley provides unique support mix in the form of research, training, financing, contacts and business development - areas that start-ups just can't tap into easily or without high costs attached," she said. In 2009, the organisation also launched Fibre Labs, a test centre where innovators receive help to develop their ideas.

Patrick Pullicino, chief executive officer of STC, said Malta had little history of cooperative working practices, but did have the IT infrastructure to be the Mediterranean counterpart to Sweden's Fibre Optic Valley.

Government's 'Vision 2015' for information technology, already foreseeing Malta as a 'Smart island', was akin to Sweden's drive to create Fibre Valley.

"But to make this vision a reality, the private sector and academia need to be brave and wise enough to share and pool limited resources and know-how."

STC is exploring collaboration with Fibre Optic Valley. One option under discussion is for STC to be active in promoting Malta as a platform for Valley company technologies in the wider Mediterranean.

Another potential area of cooperation is the opening up of Fibre Labs' facilities to Maltese innovators to test and develop their emerging ideas.

Joe Woods, who heads innovation on STC's curricula, said it may be possible for the training institute to work with Fibre Optic Valley to develop a collaborative model in broadband ICT initiatives among islands and small states globally.

Ms Waax concluded her presentation with some examples of successful companies nurtured by Fibre Optic Valley.

"Innovation is really problem-solving, so many of our success stories are of companies that looked outside their door first, discovered a problem and innovated to resolve it.

"One company that is doing well in international, not just Swedish markets, is Open Care, which provides ICT-backed support to elderly people in their own homes. Malta has the ability to prompt a similar pattern of ICT innovation."