Prime Minister Ana Brnabic chaired today the first session of the Council for Encouraging the Development of Digital Economy, Innovation, High-Tech Entrepreneurship and Digitalisation – the so-called Council for Development of Digital Economy.
The newly formed council is a continuation of the Council for IT and Innovative Entrepreneurship, and the focus of its work will be the digitalization of the entire economy.
The focus of the Government will be the availability of financing for innovative companies, development of digital infrastructure, investments in research and development, and the government will actively work on these goals through 35 projects, worth €177.6 million.
On that occasion, Brnabic pointed out that, thanks to the work so far and the results of the Council for IT and Innovative Entrepreneurship, Serbia is today recognised as a country that significantly invests in the development of e-government, innovation and digitalisation.
She added that especially significant results have been achieved when it comes to education and innovation infrastructure, construction of science and technology parks and startup centres.
“Now we have five new priorities, namely artificial intelligence, biotechnology and biomedicine, smart cities, the future of mobility and the use of geospatial data”, said the Prime Minister and especially expressed gratitude to Governor of the National Bank of Serbia Jorgovanka Tabakovic for the support provided by this institution throughout the process of digitalisation.
Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Tatjana Matic pointed out that digitalisation has contributed to doubling the number of electronic transactions, which increased from €17.8 billion in 2019 to 32.8 billion in 2020, and last year ended with 2,013 online stores.
She stated that the further development of both e-commerce and the digital economy can be seen in the additional development of telecommunication infrastructure and digital skills.
According to her, approximately 940 schools received new computers and equipment last year and 950 this year, and 90,000 households in rural areas received telecommunications infrastructure.
Director of the Department for Entrepreneurship and Investments in NALED Dusan Vasiljevic pointed out that the biggest challenge for Serbia is to ensure greater investments of the economy in research and development, and cited the StarTech program, implemented by NALED and fully financed by Philip Morris.
In the next three years, more than $3.5 million will be awarded through grants, and approximately 100 domestic startup teams, entrepreneurs, micro, small and medium enterprises will be supported with those funds, Vasiljevic pointed out.
Source: srbija.gov.rs, Photo: srbija.gov.rs