Exports increased from year to year, so in 2021, in 10 months, they amounted to 1.5 billion euros, which was a growth of 28 percent compared to the previous year, and the value of exports of the IT sector surpassed exports in the field of agriculture.
Last year, the results of IT sector exports were even better because, as recently stated by Prime Minister Ana Brnabić, the amount of 2.692 billion euros was reached and a growth of 45 percent compared to last year was achieved.
This growth of the IT sector, of course, also required appropriate steps in the creation of quality staff, so the number of places in the IT sector was increased in high schools and colleges.
According to Nebojša Bjelotomić, director of the “Digital Serbia” Initiative, the key thing in the domestic IT sector is that a critical mass of people has been created, because approximately 100,000 people work in this sector, of which about half are programmers.
– What is also very important is not only more permeability in the educational environment, which is important for increasing the number of people in the IT sector – said Bjelotomić.
– There are many people from completely different professions who are preparing to become DevOp, and this is one of the more demanding fields.
He pointed out that it is very important that people in the IT sector recognize the opportunity for themselves, that our education system provides a very good foundation, and that in informal figures, between 7,000 and 8,000 people enter the IT sector annually, and that trend has existed for the last four to five years.
Bjelotomić pointed out that the future is in product development through startups and that the startup ecosystem in Serbia is favorable.
– Domestic startups are expected to grow by 50 percent this year and create 3,000 new jobs. The startup community in Serbia still needs to grow in order to reach at least Europe, and it is interesting that the percentage of women among the founders of startups in Serbia is higher than in Europe – in our country, women are among the founders of startups in 20 percent of cases, and in Europe from 12 to 15 percent – said Bjelotomić.
Almost two-thirds of startups expect business growth of more than 50 percent this year, and Bjelotomić estimates that, considering previous years, that is possible.
– It must be taken into account that they are growing from a small base, so that 50 percent, as significant as it sounds, is not that big in absolute terms.
Nevertheless, it is very important for those companies because in this way they increase the number of users and their turnover, their own value, which is also important for their investors, who are inextricably linked to startups, and this is the basis for some new investors to invest additionally in order to had such a significant growth in the following years – points out Bjelotomić.
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