Vučić: "€100 million invested in a data center"; "2.6 mil attempted hacker attacks on Serbia's infrastructure"

President’s address

“Many thanks for this partnership which, together with our sincere ambition, leads Serbia into the future. It represents the difference between us and many others. What you were able to see today in Kragujevac, no one in the region has. Only Poland can be compared with us in this matter.”

“We missed and lagged behind with the first and second industrial revolutions; we caught the third and fourth a little earlier, but this AI revolution we have caught and we are on the first train.”

As he says, when you see supercomputers here, a lot of money has been invested in it.

“When we were buying supercomputers we said 5 million is too much for us, and this one now is 50 million. We are giving a lot of money for this, because more and more money is in computers.”

“The launch of modules 3 and 4 of the data center in Kragujevac means that we are witnessing our future. This brings us an additional 8 megawatts of energy capacity, which means that in total we have 14 megawatts. We plan an investment value of 40 million, and so far that investment has exceeded 100 million.”

As he says, today the second supercomputer based on the latest Nvidia graphics processors was also launched.

“Soon a third supercomputer will join us as well.”

“We protect the rights of citizens so that everything from civil registries and everything else is fully preserved. It gives us satisfaction that we collect around 500,000 euros per month from tenants of the most powerful companies, we belong to the highest class of countries that can preserve the most confidential data.”

He says that on an annual level this is 6 million, and he believes it will reach 10 million.

“That is why we must ensure electricity for Kragujevac and for the whole of Serbia,” Vučić explained.

Infrastructure works

“Besides the construction of the Karadjordje highway, which is important for northern Šumadija, I must announce additional projects awaiting Kragujevac and Šumadija,” the president said.

“I ask representatives of state bodies to show patriotism by buying Stellantis cars and those who have factories here, thus giving jobs to people in Kragujevac and giving a reason for those factories to stay here.”

“We started independently the construction of a bypass, which is of key importance, and I believe that by the end of the year we will open the bypass around Kragujevac from the Jovanovac interchange to the Gornji Milanovac interchange.”

As he says, he expects all works to be completed quickly.

“At this moment the level of completion is 42 percent, we will try to speed up ‘Putevi Srbije’ because the bypass around Kragujevac is of key importance.”

He says that negotiations will immediately continue on the construction of the Vučkovica tunnel.

“We immediately negotiate further construction of the Vučkovica tunnel via Knić to Mrčajevci, to connect to the Čačak–Kraljevo highway. We want Kragujevac to be the center of the world. That is about 550 to 600 million euros of investment, and we will be ready to invest that money in the infrastructure of Šumadija.”

“I promised that we will renovate the Faculty of Philology building and we will start that soon. We are working on Zastava, there will be huge investments measured in hundreds of millions of euros. We have done a lot, and we still plan to do a lot more.”

Fuel prices

“What are we going to do with the increase in oil prices to 120 dollars. Today there will also be an increase in diesel prices of only two dinars, and petrol remains the same.”

“We are second to last in terms of how much we increased fuel prices. Only one country is behind us – Slovenia, but they had shortages. We increased fuel prices the least in Europe, but we lowered excise duties, we are still releasing oil reserves, fortunately the refinery is working and can produce jet fuel and kerosene, we have not yet touched military reserves.”

“Look at the inflation in Croatia, it doesn’t matter, oil raises everything. That is why we are watching how far it will go, but we must protect the interests of citizens.”

Visit to the data center

“If in the future we build from Prijepolje again to Kragujevac, and even Belgrade and larger data centers, can we and how much energy can we use for cooling? They told me about saving 30 percent of energy,” the president asked.

“When I was in Davos, people from Nvidia were the most listened to and attracted the most attention. They spoke incredibly intelligently, I am happy that we can now do this here,” the president added.

“I am interested in whether we will be able to ensure a high-voltage network first, and only then a low-voltage one. The electricity problem is much bigger than you think, you must ensure enough so that neither Kragujevac nor you have problems,” the president warned.

As he says, it would be excellent if more data centers were built in this area, from Čačak and Kragujevac.

“This would raise the whole Zlatibor, Moravica and Šumadija districts to the sky. Of course, later also Mačva and Kolubara districts,” he explains.

He says it is very important that everyone in Serbia sees this.

Vučić said that neither Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, nor other countries in the region have that certificate.

“No one in Europe has this as something that belongs to the state, as part of what we call national sovereignty, except us and Poland. Usually these are private supercomputers.”

He added that Serbia has two supercomputers with such a certificate, and a third will arrive soon.

“Only we and the Poles have this serving the preservation of national sovereignty, of course thanks to American Nvidia and huge state investment,” Vučić pointed out.

“As you heard, we had 2.6 million attempts of hacker attacks on Serbia’s infrastructure. To avoid having a blackout like Spain due to attacks, EDS and EPS have moved their data here so they can withstand much stronger hacker attacks.”

“Here they will now store their data, because they understood they can no longer play around and irresponsibly handle data and citizens of Serbia, including the Tax Administration, Customs and all others.”

Reception and center description

The president was welcomed by the Director of the Office for IT and eGovernment Mihailo Jovanović, the Mayor of Kragujevac Nikola Dašić, and the chargé d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Serbia Aleksandar Titolo.

Most modern facility in the region

The data center in Kragujevac, opened in December 2020, represents the most modern facility of its kind in the region, intended for data and equipment storage.

The State Data Center in Kragujevac hosts the first National Artificial Intelligence Platform in the Republic of Serbia, which is a next-generation supercomputer made available free of charge to universities, scientific institutes, faculties, and domestic start-up companies in science and technology parks.

Due to the continuously growing number of users and their increasing need for resources, the Government of the Republic of Serbia has decided to acquire another supercomputer as an upgrade to the existing one.