The world is changing with the 4th digital revolution – Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said at the panel “Geopolitics in the Digital Age”, held at Kopaonik Business Forum.
She stressed that the world is becoming a very complex place, especially for Serbia as a small country located between West and East.
In these global wars, we are trying to balance. Whenever times are complex, you don’t want to be the ‘grass on which elephants fight,’ said Ana Brnabic, Blic reports.
She added that it is easier for small companies and small countries to change.
The Prime Minister believes that now is the time for constant change, because we are adaptable, we are creative, so we see this as our advantage.
We can become the winners of the 4th industrial revolution, says Ana Brnabic.
The PM estimated that the whole digitalization was completely changing policy and governance.
She stressed that a twitter policy had been established, primarily with President Trump, and that this was a trend we should follow.
She pointed out that there is a big problem with fake news and stated that education is the main cornerstone from which we should start to fight fake news.
Ana Brnabic believes that the economy and politics are changing and that all this contributes to greater democracy.
However, she estimates that it has never been harder for politicians to govern.
Speaking about digital infrastructure for the digital government, Brnabic pointed out that much had been done in the last three years and emphasized that a national data center had been established with Telecom Serbia.
“I hope that we will be able to solve the problem of internal migration in Serbia, create science and technology parks to enable and create conditions for everyone to change society”, Brnabic emphasized.
She points out that most people today consider digitalization as an opportunity for growth and development and that there is much more talk about digitalization than in other countries.
Speaking about migration, she recalled that in 2015-2016, when hit by the migrant crisis, Serbia managed to protect its borders, let those who enter it legally, open migrant schools and stressed that it was proud of how Serbia had resolved that problem.
The impression is that this new crisis has surprised Europe again, Brnabic said.
She announced that she would have a meeting with her team on Friday to discuss how to protect our borders, and stressed that it needed “a common EU policy”.
Talking about digitization and migration, the PM stressed that climate change migration would be an even bigger problem, which is still to come.
Speaking at the panel, Finance Minister Sinisa Mali pointed out that in 2012 and 2013 we could not talk about digitization because we had other problems at the time, but in the meantime things had changed.
Now there is money for digitization, said Mali, citing the example that the IT office has a budget 50 percent larger than last year.
Mali emphasized that businesses need to understand the benefits of digitalization, because it is very important for companies to quickly get VAT, speed up customs procedures through digitization, etc.
Sinisa Mali reiterated that Serbia needs even more economic growth and that Serbia is expected to have a GDP worth 73 billion euros in 2025. This requires digitalization as our strategic goal, emphasized Sinisa Mali, Danas reports.
