In order for Serbia to increase the export of IT services by one billion euros next year, we need 10,000 new personnel. That is why it is necessary to increase the quotas for studying informatics at faculties, Nikola Marković, from the Society for Informatics of Serbia, said today at the forum Motivation and contribution of the ICT sector for the admission of Serbia to the European Union.
According to him, the increase in the number of personnel who are experts in information and communication technologies (ICT) is a key result for our progress in this area.
According to him, about 90,000 people work in ICT companies. 44,000 programmers are employed in 3,768 IT companies.
Our software exports are greater than the growth of domestic IT and IT companies are forced to market their services abroad since the growth of the domestic market is around 10 percent annually and the potential of our IT sector is much greater.
– Serbia is a moderately developed IT country. We were that 30 years ago, but after that we went into decline and only in the last four or five years have we represented a medium-developed country. Serbia has quality IT applications, electronic and digitization of business, production of IT equipment and software. These are the attributes that qualify us to be equal in the EU in terms of ICT. As a country, Serbia markets 65 percent of its exports to the EU, and that is why there is so much interest in the EU. The ICT sector markets about 65 percent of its products in the EU, 15 percent in the USA, and 20 percent of all other exports. This shows that we are oriented towards the EU and the USA as places where we can market our IT services – explained Marković.
According to a survey they conducted among IT professionals to hear opinions about the interest of the ICT sector in Serbia’s entry into the EU, the orientation of IT companies towards the EU market is visible.
The EU is expected to grow our market, to improve the production structure and to export knowledge. It is an important new feature that knowledge appears in the structure of what we export.
When asked what are the expected beneficial effects for the ICT sector from Serbia’s accession to the EU, the largest number of participants believe that it is easier access to new markets in EU member states (68.5 percent), followed by the abolition of existing restrictions for doing business in EU member states (51 .5 percent), faster transfer of knowledge and technology (50.8 percent).
When asked how the ICT sector can contribute to the faster accession of Serbia to the EU, most participants believe that it is through business standardization. In addition, they believe that supporting the harmonization of the legal system of Serbia with the legal system in the EU and encouraging the government and competent authorities to implement defined measures for admission to the EU, along with continuous information on the state of preparations, will most contribute to faster admission.
Jelena Jovanović, from the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, citing what Serbia has done in this area, cited the strategy for the development of artificial intelligence as important. The open data movement, which has been activated in Europe to bring added value to companies, is something we should do and invite institutions to open data. There are a number of things that we can do ourselves, with a little goodwill and good organization, that can bring great benefits to the IT sector.
Sign up for business updates & specials.
