Growing digital together

Event report

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

Ms Violeta Jovanović (Executive Director, National Alliance for Local Economic Development NALED, Serbia) mentioned that a few years ago Serbia was at the bottom of the Doing Business List created by the World Bank. That was a trigger for the determined action. With the help of the GIZ (The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) partnership, the Republic of Serbia improved its position to the 11^th place on the World Bank Doing Business List last year.

She mentioned two specific services shown as the most successful. First is the mobile application for hiring seasonal workers. It is all done in a simple, fast, reliable way leading to the major cost cuts, and time reductions. Second is the electronic land register, available now in Serbia. This project was developed by implementing the already existing efficient solution in the region, particularly with the experience from the North Macedonian land registry system. The network of regional experience sharing, proved to be the best way towards significant improvements, she added

NALED created a tool for mapping and assessing the business surroundings at the local level. This tool was a great success, and more than 100 local administrations were using it at some point.

In conclusion, she recognised the importance of mutual cooperation at the regional level. Sharing experiences with the neighbouring economies, including the ones already in the EU, like Croatia and Hungary, would help us to become more competitive on the global level.

By Arvin Kamberi