Reengineering and redesigning the eGovernment Portal is a real challenge that we will meet in the coming period, as we have already included several complex information systems such as eZUP, eBaby, eSchool, eParticipation, vehicle registration, traffic examination, etc. while many new projects are been planned and prepared for launch.
ITU News caught up with Mihailo Jovanovic, Director of the Office for Information Technologies (IT) and eGovernment, Government of the Republic of Serbia, for insight into how the country is moving forward with the help of ICTs.
What is the government’s vision for a digital economy in Serbia? Why is it important?
The IT sector is one of the key priorities of the government of Serbia. The Digital Economy and an economy based on knowledge and innovation offer a unique opportunity for 21st century. Therefore the Serbian Government continues to strengthen support to entrepreneurs, young innovative and creative talent, scientists, researchers and all those stakeholders that are driven towards a healthy and prosperous ICT ecosystem.
Through enabling environment and raising capacities, we are certain that IT sector in Serbia will establish itself as the key enabler for further economic growth, attracting foreign investments, and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals together with our partners on regional and global level. Creating a positive environment for the digital economy in Serbia will further provide opportunities for strengthening economic reforms, lifting our educational capacities, contributing to greater investments in research and development, and shaping social progress.
In order to continue the already set trend by numerous success stories in Serbia, it is important for us to ensure that there is a clear and promising vision coming from the Government in order to build trust with all interested in harvesting from the IT capacities in Serbia. The implementation of this vision is best seen through Serbia’s recent IT business achievements that have successfully aligned business and digitization to build some of the world’s biggest brands in their respective fields.
Let me name some of them: Institute “BioSens” from Novi Sad; company “Nordeus”, one of the world leaders in the “gaming” industry; the company “Seven Bridges”, which is engaged in the research of the genome in detecting cure against cancer, which has been declared one of the 50 smartest companies in the world. We also have the “Microsoft Development Center Serbia”, the fourth development center of Microsoft in the world, to name a few major private sector trends in IT industry.
I am proud to highlight the company, “Technology Partnership of Serbia”, comprised of European scientists working together from Serbia, Great Britain, Germany, Denmark and Italy, who developed the world’s first scanner that detects blood vessels that cause malignant melanoma with infrared laser beam in only 30 seconds.
Finally, we have the “StartIT Center”, an IT start-up hub with eight centers throughout Serbia, with objective to engage with youth and people with entrepreneurial spirit, sharing knowledge and experience related to successful examples and best practices of how to start a business and make it sustainable.
How will the recently established Office for Information Technologies and e-Government help achieve that vision?
The establishment of the Office came as a result of a long process that emerged through years of public consultations with the IT community in the country, in search for the best state-level IT solutions coordinated by the Serbian government. When the Government of the Republic of Serbia in July this year passed the Regulation on the Establishment of the Office for Information Technology and Electronic Government, the idea was to position this newly established body as a central function in the Government, which corresponds directly to the Prime Minister.
Digitization of state administration and improved provision of services to citizens, is one of the key priorities in the Government’s mandate. Therefore the Office was established with the main task was to consolidate state IT resources, to ensure the connection of various information systems, and to provide strong support and foundation for the development of Serbia’s e-government services.
By producing an effective electronic administration, citizens will benefit tremendously through abolition of parallel processes, shortening the time of administrative procedures, and overall increase of the quality of state services to citizens and the economy. At the same time, digitization of government administration is a very good way to fight corruption and raise transparency of public administration. Additionally, another major benefit is cost savings related to the funds allocated from the budget to information technologies, by developing our own information system.
What other policies or initiatives will help achieve Serbia’s vision?
The Office for IT and eGov deals with the development and implementation of standards in the introduction of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in state administration bodies and government services, while providing support in the application of information and communication technologies in state administration bodies and government services through the design, development, construction, maintenance and improvement of the computer network of republic authorities. The office will for the first time electronically unite all state administration bodies, communication infrastructure, security center of state bodies and government websites.
By establishing an efficient and modern e-government system, which is to be implemented professionally by the newly established Office, the Government of Serbia presents its strong commitment to educational reforms, reflected in the introduction of IT and computer studies as a compulsory subject in elementary schools, and also by increasing enrollment in IT courses at universities in Serbia by 20 percent and successfully conducting re-training programs for those professional looking for change in career. Various incentives for IT entrepreneurship are also a part of new sets of policies, striving to secure better conditions for starting up companies and assist the technology transfer to the market, to name a few.
The Office also coordinates the work of the National Center for Security of the ICT System (national CERT). It provides services of designing, developing and functioning of Internet access, Internet services and other centralized electronic services, and it is responsible for all ICT equipment procurement needs of state administration bodies and the government services.
We are moving step by step, module per module. In this long term process, we aim to involve many young professionals from our leading IT-related schools and startup scene. In this respect, we are planning to run first public hackathon for eGovernment, through which we will choose the best proposals and teams that will be offered opportunities with the Office.
It is also significant to note that the Office participates in the planning and construction of IT infrastructure for the new Central Population Register, where for the first time all relevant data of Serbian residents will be made available. Reengineering and redesigning the eGovernment Portal is a real challenge that we will meet in the coming period, as we have already included several complex information systems such as eZUP, eBaby, eSchool, eParticipation, vehicle registration, traffic examination, etc. while many new projects are been planned and prepared for launch.
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