IDPM Working papers
This Working Paper is part of the Development Informatics series
Romania's Hardware and Software Industry: Building IT Policy and Capabilities in a Transitional Economy
Mihaiela Grundey & Richard Heeks
Abstract
This paper reviews the past, present and future of Romania's information technology (IT) industries. It describes Romania's IT industry under Communism and the changes in both IT policies and the IT industry following the December 1989 revolution. Though flawed in many ways, Romania's Communist-era isolationism did lead to some build-up of IT-related technological capabilities.
Post-1989 liberalisation has encouraged a suppression of higher-level capabilities but a substantial increase in lower-level IT skills. Hardware capabilities have been lost far more than those in software. In part, this is due to various 'natural protections' that shield the domestic software market from foreign packages. In part, it is due to continued state support for Romania's software industry.
Future development of this industry is likely to focus more on services than packages, and more on the domestic than the export market. However, future development will depend on continuing government intervention: not the state ownership and regulation of the Communist era, but promotional interventions that support what will be a vital keystone of all national economies in the 21st century.
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