Cadez: Since 2012, Serbia Has Increased Software and IT Services Exports Thirteen-fold

Over the past 12 years, Serbia has increased its software and IT services exports thirteen-fold, reaching a value of EUR 5.2 billion, while the number of engineers in the sector has grown to 150,000, said Marko Cadez, President of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, during a panel on innovation held as part of the international conference "Partners in a Changing World: Central and Eastern Europe, America, Israel and the New Middle East", hosted at the National Assembly of Serbia.

During the fourth session, "Innovation and the Start-Up Nation Model — What Central and Eastern Europe Can Learn from Israel and What It Can Build in Cooperation with It", participants discussed Israel's experience in developing one of the world's most successful innovation ecosystems, linking research, technology and business, as well as the opportunities for Central and Eastern European countries to apply those experiences in line with their own development potential.

Cadez said that the results of innovation development are also reflected in the number of science and technology parks, of which Serbia currently has six, as well as in its digital infrastructure, noting that Serbia has a Tier 4 State Data Centre.

We also have two state-owned supercomputers, along with supporting data centers. In the private sector, there is also a commercial AI factory that uses the same state-of-the-art technology as the Data Center. It is difficult to find a country of this size in the EU that possesses such infrastructure and capacities, Cadez said.

He added that Serbia is home to more than 30 international research and development centers operated by some of the world's largest companies, with Microsoft being the first to establish such a center in the country.

One of Microsoft's first development centers outside its headquarters is located in Serbia. Moreover, Microsoft Azure is the platform that forms the backbone of artificial intelligence deployment, and it was developed by Serbian engineers within the company's infrastructure development division, Cadez said.

Privredna komora Srbije

Serbian Chamber of Commerce

Marko Cadez

State Data Center Kragujevac

supercomputer

export of software and IT services

science and technology parks