INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN IT SERVICES AS A DRIVER OF NATIONAL ECONOMIC SECURITY

Abstract

The paper examines international cooperation in IT services as a driver of national economic security and develops a model of controlled openness that integrates three complementary layers: legal guarantees of portability enabling provider switching and cross-border transfer; technical interoperability grounded in widely adopted reference models and standards; and certification- and operations-oriented assurance that renders trust verifiable across service supply chains. The topic is timely because digitalization concentrates platform power, fragments data regimes, and elevates cyber risks, jointly amplifying vendor lock-in and regulatory uncertainty for open and transition economies. Methodologically, the study combines structured review, comparative policy analysis, standards mapping, and conceptual synthesis. We classify cooperation instruments (bilateral and plurilateral digital economy agreements and public–private alliances), systematize joint cybersecurity practices (CSIRT/ISAC networks, incident information sharing, joint exercises, and certification schemes), and frame technology and data-infrastructure options (shared or “sovereign” clouds with portability and interoperability profiles). Building on these blocks, we construct a matrix that links legal grounds for data transfers with assurance frameworks and security/privacy management standards, and derive a stepwise roadmap tailored to transition economies. Results show that coordinated portability and interoperability reduce vendor lock-in and bargaining asymmetries, while joint cyber capabilities and aligned certification shorten detection and response times and lower transaction costs along cross-border service chains. The matrix clarifies how legal transfer bases align with assurance and management standards, supporting predictable international data flows without undue market fragmentation. The practical contribution is an implementation-ready toolkit for policymakers and international partners to operationalize controlled openness: it preserves innovation dynamics and market access while strengthening resilience, enabling multi-sourcing, and expanding export capabilities in IT services; the modular framework is adaptable to diverse institutional settings and can be monitored using clear progress indicators.