With the establishment of the Portal for Foreign Citizens in February this year, a new service for submitting requests for a Single Permit for Residence and Work of Foreign Citizens in the Republic of Serbia has been enabled. A request for a Single Permit can be submitted by a foreign citizen or an employer on behalf of a foreign citizen exclusively electronically on the Portal for Foreign Citizens.

The Office for IT and eGovernment, in cooperation with the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Policy, and the National Employment Service, developed and launched the Portal for Foreign Citizens in February this year. This Portal provides an electronic service for submitting requests for a Single Permit for Temporary Residence and Work of Foreign Citizens in the Republic of Serbia.

"Since the launch of the Portal for Foreign Citizens on February 1 this year and ending with November 30, a total of 34,146 requests for a Single Permit for Temporary Residence and Work of Foreign Citizens in the Republic of Serbia have been positively resolved. In November alone, 3,635 Single Permits were issued", said the Director of the Office for IT and eGovernment, Mihailo Jovanović, adding that the Single Residence and Work Permit is issued as a biometric document, in the form of a card.

If the request is submitted independently by a foreign citizen, it is necessary for them to have an account on the Electronic Identification Portal, while if the request is submitted by an employer, it is necessary for them to have an account on the eGovernment Portal as a legal entity, and for the legal representative to have a registered account as well. All that is required is for the legal representative of the legal entity to log in to the eGovernment Portal and authorize someone to submit a request for a Single Permit on behalf of that legal entity, by assigning the role “Work with Foreign Citizens”.

Additionally, within the Portal for Foreign Citizens, it is possible to apply for a visa C, which is a visa for a stay of up to 90 days, issued for tourist, business and other trips, as well as one, two or more entries into the Republic of Serbia. It is also possible to apply for a visa D, which is a visa for a stay of 90 to 180 days, issued on the basis of employment, education, family reunification, etc.

Belgrade, 6.December 2024., Dr. Mihailo Jovanović, Director of the Office for IT and e-Government, and Mihai Brana, Managing Director and Site Leader Honeywell Romania SRL, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to explore cooperation in information technology and innovation. This memorandum signifies Honeywell's interest in the future Innovation District in Kragujevac.

Since the launch of the Portal for Foreign Citizens on February 1 this year and until October 31, a total of 30,681 requests for the Single Permit for Temporary Residence and Work of foreign citizens in the Republic of Serbia have been positively resolved. In October, 5,172 Single Permits were issued, which is even 10% more than in September.

With the establishment of the Portal for Foreign Citizens in February this year, a new service for submitting requests for obtaining the Single Permit for Residence and Work of Foreign Citizens in the Republic of Serbia was made possible. The request is submitted exclusively electronically via the Portal for Foreign Citizens.

As part of a two-day visit to the Republic of Serbia, representatives of the global IT company Amazon today visited the Office for IT and eGovernment, where a meeting was held with Milan Latinović, Acting Director of the Office and Jelena Bojović, Director of the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. At the meeting, the possibilities of cooperation were discussed; the most important projects of Serbia in the field of digitalization were presented, as well as plans for expanding infrastructure and strengthening human resource capacities in the IT sector.

The Prime Minister of Serbia, Ana Brnabić, and the President of the World Economic Forum, Børge Brende, today officially launched the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Serbia (C4IR Serbia) as part of the Biotech Future Forum 2022, which was held in the Palace of Serbia in Belgrade.

Today, in the presence of the President of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, and the President of the Republic of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Office for Information Technologies and eGovernment of the Government of the Republic of Serbia and the Digital Transformation Office of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey. This Memorandum of Cooperation in the field of eGovernment was signed by the Director of the Office for IT and eGovernment, Mihailo Jovanović, PhD and the Head of the Digital Transformation Office of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey, Ali Taha KOÇ, PhD.

A commercial agreement was signed with the Oracle Corporation in Kragujevac today, with which this global IT giant is opening the first regional center in Southeast Europe in the Data Center in Kragujevac. By establishing the regional hub of this corporation, conditions are created for the Oracle Corporation to provide its services from Kragujevac to this part of Europe and beyond.

At the event held today at the White House in Washington, organized by the United States and in cooperation with Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom and the European Union, the Declaration for the Future of the Internet was presented. On behalf of the Republic of Serbia, the Director of the Office for IT and eGovernment of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, Mihailo Jovanović, PhD participated in the meeting (online) and supported the Declaration.

As part of EXPO 2020, at the Investment Conference held on the Statehood Day of the Republic of Serbia, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between G42 Cloud, a subsidiary of G42, the leading UAE-based AI and cloud computing company and the Office for Information Technologies and eGovernment of the Government of the Republic of Serbia.

Dubai (UAE), October 17, 2021 - At the pavilion of the Republic of Serbia, at this year's World EXPO 2021 held in Dubai, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Serbia Office of Information Technologies and eGovernment and Oracle.

Office for IT and eGovernment presented today at the State Data Centre in Kragujevac a unique platform, “Smart Serbia”, which is used for secure collection and processing of data from various public sources. This data is important for the provision of comprehensive valuable information in order to improve e-services for the citizens, simultaneously making them the “brains” of the state, based on which decisions can be made and strategies devised.

New electronic service - eConsulate was presented today in the Office for IT and eGovernment, in the presence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nikola Selaković, and the Director of the Office for IT and eGovernment, Mihailo Jovanović, PhD. From now on, all foreign citizens coming to Serbia with the intention of obtaining employment can apply for a type D visa online, for a longer stay of up to 180 days, through the service available at the following internet address: https://ekonzulat.gov.rs/.

The Western Balkans Digital Summit, which was held in Belgrade last April, is being held online this year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, in the organization of the city of Tirana. Mihailo Jovanović (Assoc. Prof, PhD) participated, along with the representatives of other economies of the Western Balkans, in two panels: “Trust and Security - Role of Governments in Digital Transformation” and “Building a Regional Digital Economy at the interplay of Governments and Businesses”.

 “The concept of digitalization, which was adopted by the previous Government as one of the priorities at the suggestion of the Prime Minister, Ana Brnabić, quickly began to give successful and visible results. The promotion of knowledge, young and talented professionals, and orientation towards development based on innovations and new technologies, have proven to be crucial in recognizing Serbia as a regional leader in digital transformation. “The fact that the Prime Minister, Ana Brnabić, will lead the next Government as well goes in favour of Serbia continuing even faster with the project and concept of digitalization”, said Jovanović.

 “In the coming weeks, Serbia will complete the construction of the State Data Centre in Kragujevac, a project of importance for Serbia, designed according to the highest technical and security TIER 4 standards, which will serve public administration, local self-government and commercial users. Serbia is ready to offer the economies of the Western Balkans equipment and data storage in this Data Centre because we are aware that there is no other Data Centre of such capacities and characteristics in the region. By putting the State Data Centre in Kragujevac into function, Serbia is also making a strong step forward in strengthening national information security”, Jovanović pointed out.

Serbia is also ready to spread knowledge in the field of digitalization, both at the level of the Western Balkans region and beyond, starting from the development of eGovernment services, all the way to the improvement of information security through the launched “Serbia Digitalizes” Programme.

“Digitalization, regional exchange of knowledge and ideas, but also regional connectivity and the provision of electronic services within the entire region is paramount for the further development of each economy, but also the region as a whole. An example of how the national economy is developing with the help of digitalization is the platform “My First Salary”, established by the Office for IT and eGovernment. With this project, the Government of the Republic of Serbia is creating a kind of digital labour market, connecting on the one hand companies that have difficulties in finding adequate staff on the market, and on the other hand young professionals who are waiting to get their first job. With this platform, we have completely removed all bureaucratic, administrative and paperwork obstacles and enabled fully digital and transparent communication between citizens, businesses and the state. Thanks to that, the state will soon subsidize entry into labour for 10,000 young professionals”, added Jovanović at the end of his presentation.

The Office for Information Technologies and eGovernment, together with the Blood Transfusion Institute of Serbia, has established a platform donirajplazmu.gov.rs through which all citizens recovering from COVID-19 can apply and donate valuable antibodies which their body created during the disease, and which are used for treatment of COVID-19 infected patients. Since April, when the system was established, almost 2,000 citizens have donated plasma.

This system has now been improved by automated communication, enabling the sending of free SMS notifications to all donors. The platform for sending these text messages, "RapidPro", was donated by UNICEF to the Government of the Republic of Serbia. UNICEF has also provided expert support to successfully integrate RapidPro into the existing systems and to have it deployed in the State Data Center in Belgrade.

"This is yet another indicator that public administration institutions have put communication with citizens into their focus and that they are adapting to the modern way of life, which means that services and information are available on mobile phones. This system, which we have established with the  generous help of UNICEF in the State Data Center and integrated it with the Donate Plasma information system, enables the timely informing of donors. We hope to expand its use to many other e-Government services in the coming months”, says Assist. Prof. Mihailo Jovanovic, Director of the Office for Information Technologies and eGovernment.  

“The project of collecting and applying anti-COVID 19 plasma started in April. Plasma is currently collected at the Blood Transfusion Institute of Serbia in Belgrade and the Blood Transfusion Institute of Vojvodina in Novi Sad, and the plan is to have plasma collected in blood transfusion institutes in Nis, Kragujevac and Uzice as well. By donating this platform, UNICEF has made it easier for us to communicate with donors and enable a fast, simple and modern way of exchanging information. This is especially important in situations when it is necessary to provide sufficient quantities of plasma for the treatment of patients or when there is a lack of plasma of certain blood groups,” stated Acting Director of the Blood Transfusion Institute of Serbia, Dr. Vesna Mijucic.

RapidPro has been produced by UNICEF’s global Innovations Lab in collaboration with software development firm Nyaruka and was launched by UNICEF’s Global Innovation Centre in 2014. It is a free, open-source platform that enables automated communication and data collection through SMS and social networks.

The Government of the Republic of Serbia is initially using the software as a resource for tackling the COVID-19 response by facilitating communication with potential plasma donors. Further use is being explored for the recovery phase in health and education systems, for communicating with frontline workers, patients, teachers, parents, and pupils.

“RapidPro is currently deployed in 37 countries and allows partners to gather accurate real-time information on vital areas such as health, nutrition, education, water and sanitation, and child protection – even in remote and hard to reach places. We hope to see its use expanded in the months to come in support of the ongoing socio-economic reforms”, says UNICEF’s Representative in Serbia, Regina De Dominicis.

The Prime Minister of Serbia, Ana Brnabić, visited today the construction site of the State Data Center in Kragujevac, together with the Director of the Office for IT and eGovernment, Mihailo Jovanović (Associate Professor, PhD) and the Mayor of Kragujevac, Radomir Nikolić. The construction of this key facility for further development of eGovernment is being carried out in accordance with the planned dynamics, and in the coming months the Center is expected to open for state administration and local self-government, as well as commercial users.

At the initiative of the Prime Minister, Ana Brnabić, who set digitalization as one of the priorities of this Government and with whose tremendous support, a decision was made to build and establish the State Data Center in Kragujevac as a project of importance for the Republic of Serbia, which represents an infrastructural milestone in eGovernment and ICT development in Serbia.

After visiting the construction works, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed with NVIDIA in the field of artificial intelligence.

 “Today, after having established cooperation with Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, Huawei and Nutanix, we have as well signed a Memorandum of Understanding with NVIDIA on the establishment of an artificial intelligence (AI) platform. This Memorandum expresses a common interest in cooperation aimed at establishing the national AI platform of Serbia. The Office for IT and eGovernment will work to establish an AI platform based on high-performance computers and, together with NVIDIA, shall develop a special capacity improvement plan necessary for building one of the fastest AI supercomputers in Southeast Europe, while NVIDIA will provide support to startup companies, trainings for the improvement of technical and applied AI knowledge, as well as joint research in order to create additional value”, said Jovanović.

Speaking about the need for hiring new staff members, Mihailo Jovanović pointed out that from the point of view of the State Data Center in Kragujevac, there will be a need for 30 highly qualified staff members in the field of IT, mechanical and energy engineering.

“When it comes to commercial users, however, we expect that the additional need for IT professionals who would work on the development, implementation and maintenance of large commercial user systems will possibly amount to hundreds. This certainly means that Kragujevac will not only become one of the most important ICT centers in Serbia, but in the region as well.”, said the Director of the Office.

The construction of this State Data Center will enable much faster and more efficient development of eGovernment services. The goal of the Government of Serbia and the Office is for all eGovernment services to be available on mobile phones and for citizens not to have to visit public administration counters at all, which is expected to take place in the upcoming two to three years.

The State Data Center in Kragujevac will have a capacity of almost 1,200 rack cabinets and will be 5 times larger than the Data Center in Belgrade. It will include 2 facilities covering an area of about 14 thousand square meters. The Data Center is designed according to the highest technical standards and is ready to meet the highest reliability standard TIER 4. It will possess a high coefficient of electricity utilization efficiency and will therefore be in the range of efficiency of the world's largest data centers.

Office for IT and eGovernment and UNDP invite all interested stakeholders to the conference “Data and eGovernance: the spark for the future”. The conference is taking place at 6^th of March, next to the International Open Data Day, in Belgrade, in the Palace of Serbia. The conference is supported by the United Kingdom Good Governance Fund.

Nowadays, “smart city” has become a buzz word, bringing the idea of better life for citizens with the help of technology. Data plays a big role in smart city development. Collected and analysed data sets are the starting point for planning and development of new services and innovation of the old ones. Data sets are also input in the decision-making process. In order to help advancement of the public transport, reduce traffic jam, or tackle any kind of infrastructure problem, we must look at the data we have and analyse it in search for answers to our problem.

With the launch of the eGovernment Services Enhancement Project (EDGE - Enabling Digital Governance) officially presented today, the Office for IT and eGovernment and the World Bank jointly embark on a comprehensive digitalization of public administration services for citizens and businesses. The aim of this project is to establish in the upcoming 3-4 years such hardware and software infrastructure of eGovernment in Serbia that will enable secure provision of all public administration services via the Internet or mobile phones.

Mihailo Jovanović (Associate Professor, PhD) signed today, at the opening of the Serbian-Chinese Business Forum in Shanghai, a Memorandum of Understanding for the establishment of a national platform for the development of artificial intelligence with the Director of Huawei in Serbia, Li Mengqun. The memorandum was signed during the visit of the Government of the Republic of Serbia to the People's Republic of China, and the signing was attended by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia, Ana Brnabić, as well as the ministers who are members of the Serbian delegation.