The Office for IT and eGovernment presented today at the State Data Centre in Kragujevac a unique platform “Smart Serbia”, which is used for secure collection and processing of data from various public sources. This data is important for the provision of comprehensive valuable information in order to improve e-services for the citizens, and at the same time they represent the “brains” of the state based on which decisions can be made and strategies developed.
The Office for IT and eGovernment developed this platform on Microsoft technologies, with the support of Azure Stack Hub, and it is located in the State Data Centre in Kragujevac. The Government of the Republic of Serbia is the first in Southeast Europe to own and use Azure Stack Hub technology in this way,
“The Government of the Republic of Serbia, led by Prime Minister Ana Brnabic, has set the digitalization of public administration as one of the government’s priorities, which has led to the provision of integrated, secure and reliable electronic services for citizens. Digital transformation of public administration is an inevitable and irreversible process, which was especially noticeable during the coronavirus pandemic, and its most important segment is certainly the data. Data managed within “Smart Serbia” will not only provide simple e-services for the citizens of Serbia, but also represent a necessary basis for the development of artificial intelligence,” said Director of the Office for IT and eGovernment Mihailo Jovanovic, and highlighted the importance of the adopted Strategy for the Artificial Intelligence Development in the Republic of Serbia for the period 2020-2025, and the establishment of the Artificial Intelligence Institute in 2021.
He also said that this platform contains all data from the information system for immunisation of the population against COVID-19, as well as data from the eInspector system.
Through “Smart Serbia” the plan is to build an ecosystem around data and create a single place where public administration data will be stored and processed: secure, standardized, accurate, and up-to-date. Also, the goal is to integrate all the multiple flows of information from different public administration bodies at the local and state level. Once the public data are there, “Smart Serbia” platform will be able to deliver services based on the Artificial Intelligence, and to provide the most advanced e-services for citizens and the state.
“Microsoft is committed to working with the Government of the Republic of Serbia to drive the move to digital way of work with the help of Azure Stack Hub and hybrid technologies. We look forward to continuing to work with our public sector customers to improve citizen services, provide Government agencies cross-collaboration, and cost-effective solutions now and in the future.” – said Milan Gospic, Microsoft Country Manager in Serbia. “The public sector can benefit from the digital transformation journey by creating modern public policies and infrastructures by digitizing services and introducing innovative platforms to benefit the economy, society, and everyone in the country”, Gospic added.
Microsoft Azure Stack Hub is a hybrid cloud platform that enables businesses and governments to deliver innovative cloud services from their own data centres, to create modern hybrid applications whilst simultaneously using the capacities of State Data Centres and Microsoft’s global infrastructure. In order to establish the highest security practices while being able to manage and govern data in the way defined by the laws of Serbia, “Smart Serbia” is designed to get the best of the two worlds, security services and tools available on Azure, and data stored in Azure Stack Hub in the Kragujevac Data Center.
By unlocking the benefits of Microsoft technologies, the Office for IT and eGovernment has a unique position enabling it to design, consolidate and establish a modern data platform. By doing that, state bodies and external partners will have a possibility to create and implement innovative scenarios for data collection, storage, analysis and visualization, and application of artificial intelligence, which would create added value and improve the way users can access information and interact with the data.
The launching of “Smart Serbia” in Kragujevac has been an opportunity for the Office for IT and eGovernment to meet with business executives of Microsoft, such as Kostas Loukas, CEE Public Sector Director, Anke den Ouden, General Manager of the CEE Multi-Country region, Panayiotis Ioannou, Public Sector Lead in the CEE Multi-Country region, and Ivan Zivkovic, Account Executive for Public Sector in Serbia.
The event in Kragujevac also featured other esteemed representatives of state bodies of the Republic of Serbia – Dragana Becic, Deputy Director of the Office for IT & eGovernment, Milorad Stojanovic, Deputy Director of the Office for IT & eGovernment and Dragan Pejovic, Director of RATEL (Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Postal Services).
