Digitalising Serbia

Event report

[Read more session reports and live updates from the 2nd Western Balkan Digital Summit]

Mr Mihailo Jovanovic, (Director of the Office for Information Technologies and eGovernment of the Government of the Republic of Serbia) gave a presentation on Digitalising Serbia. Jovanovic stressed that digitalisation is a priority of the government was set forward by Ms Ana Brnabic, the Prime Minister of Serbia and that all ministers have committed themselves to this.

To this end, a number of measures have been adopted such as legislation on digital identity, information security, and data protection.

Jovanovic highlighted that even though the Office for Information Technologies and e-government accords importance to citizen services, they have also dedicated significant attention to development of infrastructure. Some of the infrastructure that has been developed in order to support the digitalisation of Serbia includes the State Data Center that hosts two cloud systems as well as telehousing services.  Plans for a reserve data center in Kragujevac are underway and the investment is evaluated at €25 million.

Other online services developed by Serbia include ‘eRecept’ that allows patients to obtain their prescriptions and therapies without going to the doctor. Similarly, ‘eVrtic’ allows parents to enroll their children into kindergarten online. Other similar services include ‘eStranac’ and ‘eInspektor’.

Jovanovic also highlighted the importance of data, which is reflected in the need for public institutions to upload and share data on data.gov.rs.

In his concluding remarks, Jovanovic stressed that a lot of work has been done, but that regional exchange of ideas are important for the future development of the WB6 and the region.

By Natasa Perucica