The Government will focus on the availability of financing for innovative companies, development of digital infrastructure, investments in research and development, and the Government will actively work on these goals through 35 projects worth 177.6 million euros, it was announced today after the session of the Council for Encouraging Digital Economy Development innovation, the so-called Council for the Development of the Digital Economy.
The session was chaired by Prime Minister Ana Brnabic, who assessed that Serbia, thanks to the work and results of the Council for IT and Innovative Entrepreneurship, is today recognized as a country that significantly invests in the development of e-government, innovation and digitalization.
Brnabic announced that the Council has five new priorities, namely: artificial intelligence, biotechnology and biomedicine, smart cities, the future of mobility and the use of geospatial data, the Government of Serbia announced.
Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Tatjana Matic pointed out that digitalization contributed to twice the number of electronic transactions, which increased from 150.8 million euros in 2019 to 277.9 million euros in 2020, and last year ended with 2,013 online store.
“About 940 schools last year and 950 this year received new computers and equipment, and 90,000 households in rural areas received telecommunications infrastructure,” Matic added.
Director of the Department for Entrepreneurship and Investments in NALED Dusan Vasiljevic pointed out that the biggest challenge for Serbia is to ensure greater investments of the economy in research and development and cited the StarTech program, implemented by NALED and fully financed by the Philip Morris Company, as an example of good practice.
“In the next three years, more than 3.5 million dollars will be awarded through grants, and about 100 domestic startup teams, entrepreneurs, micro, small and medium enterprises will be supported with those funds,” Vasiljevic pointed out, it is stated in the announcement, N1 reports.
