Open data - open opportunities for all

During the Summit, Jovanovic participated in a ministerial meeting that brought together ministers and representatives of the governments and presented the situation and perspectives that Serbia has in the opening of data, which is its priority topic.

“The opening of the data of public institutions for the purpose of re-use represents the strategic commitment of the Government of the Republic of Serbia and as such has found its place in the Strategy for the development of eGovernment for the period 2015-2018 and in Serbia's participation in the initiative of the Open Government Partnership. In October 2017, the first National Open Data Portal was presented as a central place where the data of state administration and local self-government were united and made available to citizens, the private and non-governmental sector. The number of institutions and information available on the Portal has been doubled in just four months since the launch of the platform, and the best indicator of the great shift in this area is the open data index, according to which Serbia is the first in the region and 41^st on the list of all members of the United Nations. The data on the portal has so far been published by 27 institutions, which have opened a total of 104 data sets with 353 resources (files)”, said Jovanovic.

He added that the benefit offered by the Open Data Portal is twofold: in addition to providing businesses, entrepreneurs and startups with data that are an excellent starting point for the development of new applications and the creation of added value, the opening of data raises transparency and confidence of citizens in the work of the public administration.

Open Government Partnership Director, Sanjay Pradhan, in his opening speech at the beginning of the summit, commended Serbia and used our country as an example of excellent work on data transparency. “At a time when most countries in the world tend to make their data less accessible, Serbia is applying the concept of open data to a large extent”, Pradhan said.

Prime Minister, Ana Brnabic, who also took part in the Summit within the Prime Ministers’ Panel, emphasized that digitalization is one of the key priorities of the Government, primarily in the areas of public administration, economy and education.

“eGovernment is the best mechanism to reduce corruption”, the Prime Minister said. She said that the Office for IT and eGovernment, which operates within the Cabinet of the Prime Minister, has already in the first year of its existence won the Information Society Development Award, given by the World Summit on the Information Society, where it competed among 685 projects from around the world.