Old friends in new era: Serbian-Russian digital partnership

Old friends in new era: Serbian-Russian digital partnership

At the First Digital Dialogue of Serbia and Russia, organized on Thursday as part of Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Serbia, Brnabic pointed out that our country is investing in education, incentive business environment and e-government in order to be successful in the digital era.

That is the key to a more efficient and transparent administration, and more efficient fight against corruption, she said.

At the meeting it was estimated that Serbia and Russia build a common vision of innovation growth and that digitization will play a key role in developing the relations of the two countries in the future.

Thanks to its exceptional workforce and duty-free exports to Russia as well as to the EU, Serbia has a unique potential to become an excellent hub for Russian hi-tech companies, Brnabic said, adding that cooperation between Serbian and Russian hi-tech companies is extremely significant for Serbia - while some of Russia's most innovative companies such as ROSATOM and Kaspersky had already shown interest in doing business in Serbia.

Russian Presidentps Special Adviser Dmitry Peskov said he is happy for two reasons – because of the warmth with which Serbia has received the Russian delegation and the speed with which two countries cooperate.

"These are the two keys that are needed - trust and the ability to work fast. We are entering a new technological age that will last for a long time. It is important for us to create new powerful traditions that we have already created before," Peskov said.

"Now, at the time when new traditions are being formed, the decisions that are being made today will affect our lives for decades and hundreds of years, he said and estimated that it is good to create "new traditions with an old friend."

The world is embarking on a new era in technology and that is why it is important to establish a new "digital partnership" with Serbia as a traditional partner, Peskov said.

Minister without Portfolio in charge of Innovation and Technological Development Nenad Popovic said that the digital dialogue between Serbia and Russia will be held at least twice a year because it encourages the creation of new values ​​through innovation and digitization.

Economic relations of the two countries are developing well, but this is the future, Popovic said, who announced that a digital and innovation center "Boiling Point", modeled after similar centers already in existence Russia, will be opened most likely in April.