IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

Serbia officially opened a 30 million euro ($37 million) data centre in Kragujevac to back the development of e-government and ensure safe storage of data, the government said on Friday.

The data centre, spreading on an area of ​​14,000 square metres, was built in a year and a half and will house Serbia's first platform for artificial intelligence, which will be available to the government, universities, technology parks and startups, the government said in a statement.

Serbia's government plans to launch an electronic government system for all regulatory procedures in the energy and mining sectors, aiming to attract more investors, energy minister Zorana Mihajlovic said on Wednesday.

"We want to increase transparency and predictability for investors, reduce costs and shorten procedures, whether they are energy permits and connections to electricity, gas, heat or procedures related to geological research and mining," Mihajlovic said in a press release.

An annual report by the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia reveals that 64.7 percent of households have an internet connection, representing a 0.5 percent growth on 2015. The highest internet penetration is in the capital Belgrade and amounts to 73.1 percent.

In terms of devices, internet access is mostly via PC (72%), followed by mobile phone (76.5%) and laptop (49.3%). In terms of connection type, ADSL leads with 45.5 percent, followed by cable internet (45.3%) and modem (1.2%).

72.9 per cent of households have an internet connection, which is 4 per cent more than last year, while almost every company in the country uses computers in its work – it was noted at the Informatics Day conference in Serbia.

18th November is celebrated in Serbia in honour of CER10, the first Serbian digital computer produced at the Mihajlo Pupin Institute in the 1960s.

Caplovic, who was speaking during his ongoing visit to the Serbian region of Vojvodina, heaped particular praise on the e-government of Indija's local administration.

In exactly one month time, the construction of a secondary State data centre spanning 10,000 sqm will begin in Kragujevac, Serbia.

The head of the Office for Information Technology and e-Government Mihailo Jovanovic, unveiled the announcement of the new facility worth around $30m.

Serbia's government has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Huawei for the development of an artificial intelligence (AI) platform, it said.​

The development of an AI platform will be financed with a $13 million (11.7 million euro) grant from the Chinese International Cooperation Development Agency, and as part of it, Huawei will provide cloud infrastructure to the Kragujevac State Data Center, the Serbian government said in a statement on Tuesday.

The presentation of this internet portal was held today, on Digital Agenda Day which has been observed in Serbia for the first time.

Speaking at the presentation, Cvetkovic announced that the number of services available in e-format will be increased to 500 over the next two years.

Intracom Telecom, a global telecommunication systems, and solutions vendor announced a Smart City project in Belgrade, Serbia, focusing on monitoring the city’s air pollution and improving the overall air quality.

The Greek telecom firm said in a press release that together with its partner Ecomaks Solutions, it has undertaken the implementation of this multi-year project, while first results are expected before the end of the year.

We can learn a lot from small countries where big things happen. Ireland attracts some of the world’s largest corporations via far more than just low corporate taxes. New Zealand’s KEA (Kiwi Expat Association) mobilizes their diaspora better than anyone. Estonia boasts the world’s highest per capita of tech unicorns— six for a population of 1.3 million.

Upstaging everyone, the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan— population 760,000—vaccinated 93% of their adult population against Covid-19 in two weeks. Having visited three times with one of my portfolio companies, www.abroad.io, I’m familiar with the challenge this presented, as well as the spirit and commitment that enabled their accomplishment.

The National Academy for Public Administration and the Council of Europe reflecet on professional development of public servantes in the time of pandemic

The transition of professional development into online format shows the digital transformation of the public administration, whilst the results achieved by the National Academy during last year show that the Academy is ready for type of endeavours. This was one of the message of the conference on “Professional development of public servants in time of pandemic – challenges and lessons learned” organised by the National Academy with the support of the Council of Europe Programme “Human Resources Management in Local Self-Governments – phase 2”, whose goal is to improve the work of employees in local self-governments, as well as their continuous professional development.

Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government Ana Brnabic has said that her ministry's priorities would be to introduce e-government services.

Tenders are already under way, she added, Tanjug is reporting.

"The obstacle that existed throughout all these years was that there was no clear distinction as to what electronic services were, but that is known now," Brnabic said at a presentation of the results of an AmCham survey.

The government on Thursday adopted an eGovernment bill that should enable simpler, more transparent and more efficient operation of electronic public services.

One of the key goals of the bill is to facilitate electronic communication between citizens, legal persons and NGOs with administrative authorities, the government press office said in a statement, Tanjug reported.

Director of the government’s Office for Information Technologies and Electronic Administration, Mihailo Jovanovic announced at the Kopaonik Business Forum tonight that electronic identification via mobile phones will be available probably as of summer this year.

“This year, we are definitely going to launch electronic identification that will facilitate dual-route communication for citizens and businesses on the e-government portals,” Jovanovic told Tanjug.

Stankovic announced the completion of the first "informatisation operation" of the health sector by 2015.

He recalled that the development of the information health system in Serbia is carried out in line with the strategic commitment of the Ministry and implementation of the “E-Health 2012” document harmonised with European standards and regulations of the relevant institutions.

Representatives of the Korea Development Institute (KDI) and Samsung SDS (Samsung Data Systems) have presented the final draft of the “Pre-Feasibility Study of the Integrated Smart City Centre in Novi Sad”, which the Government of South Korea has donated to the City of Novi Sad, the local government announced.

Also, they presented steps taken in drafting of the Study, which also contains suggestions regarding the opening of the Smart City Centre.

The survey, carried out in April on 1,239 respondents, shows that 63 percent use the internet to follow news, followed by those who use it for information about various topics and for education, and for visits to social networks, said Zoran Torbica of the Internet Development Center.

Prime Minister Ana Brnabic opened today the first state-of-the-art Data Centre, which houses key information and communication infrastructure important for the efficient functioning of electronic administration and the development of new services for citizens and businesses.

In the premises of the Office for Information Technology and Electronic Administration, Brnabic pointed out that today is a very important day for eGovernment and for all citizens, because we will no longer have a situation in which each individual ministry, each agency, administration will have its own data centres in unsafe conditions, but everything will be able to run centrally.

Amid a bold public administration and economic push, Serbia is ready to boost cooperation with Korea on e-government, trade and other areas that could be a catalyst to its ongoing recovery and bid to join the European Union, the country’s deputy prime minister told The Korea Herald.

While Europe offers a broader pathway to growth, the Korean model involving government consolidation and a market-driven economy caters to

At a press conference on the first 100 days of government’s office, Matic said that the Ministry will announce next year a tender on the public procurement of the E-authority establishment service, which will enable government sessions to be held electronically.