The e-business awareness raising campaign for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) was launched in Belgrade on 12 June 2015 as a part of the E-business Development Project activities funded by the European Union. The speeches were delivered by Katarina Jovanovic-Obradovic, Assistant Minister of Economy, Sava Savic, Assistant Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications, Mr. Oskar Benedikt, Deputy Head of Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Serbia and Leszek Jakubowski, Project Team Leader.
The event was attended by more than 40 representatives of SMEs, ministries, the EU Delegation and the National Agency for Regional Development.
Katarina Jovanovic-Obradovic emphasizes that development of e-commerce and greater utilization of digital economy is important for improvement of competitiveness. She added that the Ministry of Economy strove to support SMEs through the project in a systematic manner, primarily those traditional SMEs to better understand and utilize opportunities of e-commerce. This will be priority of the Ministry of Economy. She reminded the audience that the Serbian government has adopted the Strategy to support development of SMEs, entrepreneurship and competitiveness for the next five years.
Sava Savic, Assistant Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications announced that the Ministry will soon organize public debate about Law on information security. This Law will regulate e-business area and make it safer for all users – for those who are in business, those who purchase, and those who provide goods and services. According to him, “although our Internet market is currently a small one, it will ultimately become part of a single digital market. SMEs are pillars of development and for further development it is necessary to improve digital economy “.
“The digital market in the world is developing seven times faster than the traditional one, and we want Serbia to join this trend. The European Union is trying to create a digital single market for all companies which are able to override their borders to sell the products. We want to remove barriers. The European Commission has unveiled an initiative – the Single Digital Market. Once Serbia becomes part of EU, it will join this market. However, Serbia still needs to harmonize its legislation in this area, and this project will also provide necessary assistance, “said Oskar Benedikt, Deputy Head of the EU Delegation in Serbia.
Leszek Jakubowski, Project Team Leader presented goals of the project and announced further activities related to the promotion of e-business and its importance.
Following the introductory speeches, e-business training session was held and led by Sinisa Begovic, expert for e-business who presented the basics of e-business. The aim of training was to provide support to SMEs by increasing their understanding of the importance of e-business and e-commerce digital applications as the means for increasing their competitiveness in the global market.
In cooperation with National Agency for Regional Development, the Project will organise 16 more trainings for SMEs during the upcoming period, which will take place in towns where the headquarters of Regional Development Agencies are located.
The European Union is the largest donor in Serbia. During the last 14 years, the European Union has invested more than 3 billion Euros in Serbia. The EU has allocated €78 million for projects aimed at improving and strengthening sectors of the Serbian economy, especially the Small and Medium Enterprise sector, as a key sector of significant importance in the process of developing Serbia’s market economy, as well as contributing to Serbia’s ongoing process of EU integration.
For more information about the project visit:
