Today, the initiative “Digital Serbia” presented the project “Take the idea”, through which, with the support of the American Organization for International Development (USAID), it will support entrepreneurs and those who will just become on the way from innovative ideas to global startups.
The consortium gathered around this project worth over 4.2 million dollars will focus on promoting entrepreneurial values, strengthening ties between the academic and business community, encouraging a multidisciplinary approach to innovation development and other topics important for further development of Serbia’s innovation ecosystem.
At the presentation of the project, Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said that this project is a continuation of everything that the Government of Serbia and the “Digital Serbia” Initiative have done in the last few years on digitalization.
She pointed out that the project would encourage young people to become entrepreneurs and expressed hope that it would keep young people in the country, but also attract people from abroad.
Brnabic stated that Serbia needs to develop innovative entrepreneurship, which, she points out, is the essence of this project.
“Now the development of the Strategy for the development of startup ecosystems and startup companies is being completed, that is exactly what the members of the Digital Serbia Initiative are doing, so this is the first strategy developed by the economy in Serbia, which the Government will only adopt,” Brnabic underlined.
The Prime Minister pointed out that she also talked today with the Minister of Finance, Sinisa Mali, about another package of tax reliefs or incentives in innovative entrepreneurship.
She emphasized that today Serbia is one of the most competitive countries in Europe for investing in startups, innovation companies or in research and development.
She reminded that since the Council for Information Technologies and Innovative Entrepreneurship was established in 2016, together with the “Digital Serbia” Initiative and the members of that initiative, a lot has been done on digitalization, stating that programming and coding have been introduced as a compulsory subject in primary schools.
She adds that more than 100 million euros have been invested in infrastructure for startups and innovation companies, that today there are four science and technology parks in Serbia, that the capacities of technical faculties have been increased, new master programs have been introduced, but also tax incentives for investing in research and development, establishment of startup companies…
She emphasized that all this is being done in order to transform our economy from one that is based mainly on labor-intensive investments to an economy that is based on innovation, high technology and knowledge.
US Ambassador to Serbia Anthony Godfrey expressed satisfaction that USAID is part of that project and that it can support the development of entrepreneurship in Serbia.
“Startups and entrepreneurship can and should be the driver of the Serbian economy, and I am glad to be part of this project, which aims to improve and expand the ecosystem for innovation in Serbia,” Godfrey said.
He pointed out that the “Take an Idea” project aims to change the way of thinking about entrepreneurship and provides an opportunity for young people to acquire the skills needed to run successful companies in Serbia.
The goal, he says, is to focus students and colleges on the skills needed in business, problem solving, creativity and willingness to take risks.
The Ambassador emphasized that the Government of the USA is completely committed to helping the citizens of Serbia to engage in innovations for economic development.
Director of the “Digital Serbia” Initiative Nebojsa Djurdjevic said that the “Take the Idea” project is a continuation of the great work that the “Digital Serbia” Initiative has done in the past few years, but also an opportunity for a large number of the Initiative’s partners to gather around the project.
“We will lead this project thinking entrepreneurially. We will be brave, we will deal with problems that seem unsolvable, we will make mistakes and learn from them, and we will become even more ambitious,” said Djurdjevic.
The goal of the project, he says, is to support the development of entrepreneurial culture and ways of thinking, as well as market orientation and focus on the commercialization of innovations.
In order to help innovative people in the process of developing ideas, the project “Take the idea” was launched by the Initiative “Digital Serbia” and partner organizations Startit, Faculty of Organizational Sciences, consulting company PwC, and Nova Iskra, with the support of USAID. This project will network businesses, educational institutions, support organizations, research organizations and relevant institutions.
The “Digital Serbia” initiative is a non-governmental and non-profit organization with the strategic goal of developing a strong, globally competitive digital economy in Serbia, which brings together more than 35 member companies, Politika reports.
