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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Digitalisation chance for growth, development of Serbian economy

Kopaonik, 4 March 2020

Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said today that our country has undergone two stages of transformation since 2014, and that this year will be a turning point because of the beginning of the third phase, in which the focus will be on digitisation as a chance for growth and economic development.

Speaking at the closing of the Kopaonik Business Forum, Brnabic explained that before 2014, it was not possible to invest in digitalisation because of the poor economic situation in the country, which was then not attractive to foreign direct investors.

Because of such a situation, it was high time for the first phase of transformation with the aim of putting public finances in order, establishing macroeconomic stability, improving conditions for foreign direct investment, reducing unemployment, kick-starting the economy and building Serbia's credibility politically and economically, she said.

According to her, one of the main reasons for the success of the completion of the first phase was the arrangement with the IMF, whose experts helped Serbia to build itself as a credible country.

That phase yielded significant results, financial and macroeconomic stability has been achieved, solutions were found to difficult issues such as Zelezara, RTB Bor and other large companies, the trend of overall employment has started, and Serbia has started to move forward on the World Bank's "Doing Business List".

The second phase of Serbia's transformation, she said, began in 2017 and its main focus is digitalisation.

When I took the post of head of government in 2017, it was the right time to launch the next phase of transformation so that we would have even more dynamic growth and a much faster pay increase.

We now have 1,000 schools connected to high-speed wireless internet and 20,000 digital classrooms, and from 1 September 2021, all schools will be connected to high-speed wireless internet and have digital teaching content, she announced.

Brnabic also noted that programming was introduced in primary schools and that our country is the first or second in Europe with pupils having the knowledge of programming languages, which is a great comparative advantage.

Since 1 June 2017, we have provided more than 100 million electronic services to the citizens of Serbia, that is, 100 million documents were exchanged automatically without the obligation for citizens to go from counter to counter, the Prime Minister said.

We did not accidentally choose digitalisation, we did not enter into digitalisation because it is modern or because it is a global trend or is an end in itself, but because it was the most logical next step, the Prime Minister underlined.