The transition to the digital economy is an exceptional opportunity for the development of the Western Balkans Six, and one of the positive aspects of the corona virus pandemic is that it contributes to accelerating that process, said participants in today’s panel at the EU-Western Balkans online summit “Creative Solutions, Sustainable Cooperation and Smart Development”.
At the panel “Opportunities: Digital Economy and Technology – a Chance for the Progress of the Region”, on the third, last day of the summit organized by the Friends of Europe, United Nations Development Program (UNDP) official Mirjana Spoljaric-Eger said that the EU Digital Agenda for the Western Balkans indicates great potential for inclusive growth of the region.
Even before the pandemic, it was known that digital transformation is a great chance for the development of the Western Balkans, and it will be an important factor for economic recovery from the pandemic and the transition to the so-called “green economy”, said Spoljaric-Eger, director of the UNDP Regional Office for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
She stated that the UNDP, in its analysis with the organization “Digital Serbia”, concluded that Serbia is attractive to “digital nomads” and that it has the potential for the development of the digital economy.
She added that the education systems in the region do not follow the growth and development of digitalization and stated as an example that in Bosnia and Herzegovina only two percent of students study programming and related fields, which is not in line with the existing growth of digital economy in that country.
“If we do not connect investment in human capital with the needs of the labor market and if we do not start investing in the future of the labor market, we will not be able to recover quickly enough from the consequences of the pandemic,” Spoljaric-Eger warned.
European Commission (EC) official Henoveva Ruis Calavera said that the EU in the Western Balkans “does everything the same” as in the member states in order to accelerate the development of the digital economy and bring the region closer to the Union in that respect.
“Everything we do in the EU, we want to see in the Western Balkans. Two years ago, we launched the Digital Agenda for the Western Balkans, this year we initiated the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans,” said Calavera, director for the Western Balkans at the EC’s Directorate-General for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations.
Calavera said that the economies of the region do not have time to lose on the way to approaching the Union, and pointed out that the digital agenda is necessary for all the transformations that Brussels wants to see in the Western Balkans.
She cited EU investment, reforms that should improve the investment climate and joint action to overcome divisions in the Western Balkans and create a basis for investment inflows as the three pillars of the region’s digital transformation.
Calavera assessed that digitalization is a very important part of the European Commission’s Economic and Investment Plan for the Western Balkans, presented in October, but pointed out the importance of accelerating the reform process.
“The ultimate goal of the region is to become part of the EU, and the transition to a digital economy is important on that path. The agreement on free roaming is an example of the concrete benefits that the digital agenda brings to the region, especially to young people,” said the EC official.
Serbian Assistant Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Milan Dobrijevic said that there is “fantastic cooperation” between the economies of the Western Balkans, which includes three or four years of work on certain projects with “very concrete results”, such as an agreement on a free roaming zone and a regional interoperability agreement.
“The region is reaping a lot of fruits from the cooperation in the field of digital economy, and we will continue with that. We hope that the common regional market will lead to a common economic area in which business will be able to be done without borders,” said Assistant Minister Tatjana Matic.
Dobrijevic stated that the world is changing much faster than a couple of decades ago and that formal education needs to be supplemented with non-formal ones.
The co-founder of the Montenegrin platform “Digitalize. Me”, Vladimir Vulic, said that “there are decades in which nothing happens and then weeks in which decades happen.”
“This is exactly what we have had since the beginning of the pandemic: weeks in which decades have taken place. The corona virus pandemic significantly accelerates the digital transformation, we should look at the pandemic as an opportunity to change things for the better and we should use that opportunity immediately,” said Vulic.
He stated that the digital economy is in the initial stages of development in the Western Balkans, but that it is growing every year.
“Although the number of initiatives in the field of digital economy is growing, they remain scattered throughout the region, without sufficient coordination and exchange of knowledge, which is why they do not achieve the effect of synergy,” said Vulic.
He said that most Western Balkan countries “still have a problem with bureaucratic procedures”, and pointed out that there are incentives for foreign direct investments, while there are no incentives for private investors, or very few.
Vulic stated that in the economies of the region, it is necessary to create an environment that supports business, then a favorable environment for “freelance” workers, as well as an education system that is adapted to the digital economy.
“We need a more flexible educational system, in which students would acquire skills with which they could adapt to changes in the digital environment,” said Vulic.
Speaking about the strengthening of women’s entrepreneurship, Spoljaric-Eger pointed out that the pandemic affects women more than other categories, and added that there is no sustainable development without women’s empowerment.
“We spent a lot of time focusing on advocating for women’s rights, and talking about gender-based violence. That is very important, but we must be aware that there is no complete protection of women if they are not an important part of the economy,” said the UNDP official.
Dobrijevic said that Serbia had launched numerous programs aimed at empowering women entrepreneurs, adding that the issue “cannot be left to the market”, Danas reports.
