The Serbian Office of IT and e-Government has won the prestigious world award for contributing to the development of the information society, in the category “creating a good environment for the development of the information society”.
The prize was awarded for the seventh consecutive year by the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), jointly organised by ITU, UNESCO, UNDP and UNCTAD.
The Office for IT and e-Government won amidst fierce competition from 685 registered and 492 projects nominated by government institutions, companies and civil society organisations from around the world.
First, the Office was among 90 finalists, then among the top five projects with the highest number of votes won within their category, out of a million votes received online, and finally declared the winner.
“The World Summit on the Information Society has recognised the establishment of the Office for IT and e-Government and the results achieved in the field of e-government as one of the key factors for the development of the information society and digitalisation of Serbia”, said Mihailo Jovanović, PhD, Director of the IT and e-Government Office at the award ceremony
The ceremony was held at the WSIS Forum in Geneva, gathering 85 ministers and over 200 representatives of governments, non-governmental organisations, directors of ICT companies, educational institutions and people interested in the development of the information society. Jovanović pointed out that the Office has rapidly managed to make major progress towards achieving the global goals of the United Nations in the sphere of the information society.
“Establishment of the first State Data Centre and the National Open Data Portal, automatic health card authentication, electronic registration of entrepreneurs, payment by payment cards, e-money and integrated e-banking on the national e-Government portal, then the projects “Baby, welcome to the world “and” e-ZUP “, launch of the “e-Inspector” project, two successful rounds of retraining in the IT sector and the establishment of CERT for state bodies are just a few of the key e-government projects that have been implemented in the past six months in Serbia.”
The Director of the Office thanked the organisers of the Forum of the World Summit on the Information Society for this prestigious award, but also Prime Minister Ana Brnabić, who has set digitalisation and development of the information society as one of the top priorities of the Serbian Government.
Since 2012, the World Summit on the Information Society has been making awards to state institutions, non-governmental organisations and private companies that have used information and communication technologies in an innovative way to improve their environment and contribute to achieving the 2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
photo: Tanjug