The Foreign Investors Council organized yesterday online Conference on Digitalization titled: ‘’Digitalization in Serbian Regulations: Possibilities and Limitations’’.
The event which gathered around 100 FIC members, initiated discussion between 15 representatives of the Government from the following 7 institutions: National Bank of Serbia, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs, Customs and Tax Administration, which showed committment of the state to cooperate with FIC on improving legal framework for digitalization. The FIC chairpersons from Digital & E-Commerce, HR, Legal, Pharma and Tax Committees actively participated in the discussion.
The main aim of this conference was to open a dialogue on the topic of digitalization in Serbian legislation, to present the needs of FIC members and to hear the Government’s plans in the field of digitalization in different areas. The idea to organize this conference came from FIC members who highlighted the importance of this topic and suggested that this year’s White Book puts the focus on digitalization as a topic that came to the fore during pandemic of coronavirus.
The Foreign Investors Council presented subtopics of key importance including: the need to enable the widest possible use of electronic signatures in everyday communication and paperless business (i.e. digital bill of exchange and MTPL policies); to continue accelerated work on digital transformation of both Customs and Tax Administration; in labour field, to continue with digitalization and simplifying the strictly formal mode of communication between employer and employee; in justice, to use the machine learning and artificial intelligence which will increase the efficiency of the legal system while reducing costs and ensuring the protection of human rights and freedoms; in pharma and health sectors, it is important to work on digitalization of all procedures before ALIMS and National Health Insurance Fund (RFZO), by which we mean electronic submission of requests but also further communication in the procedure, and to introduce personalized medicine which would not be possible without digitalization.
All sides agreed that digitalization is especially today, due to a global pandemic and the measure of social distancing, a matter of this moment, the present, necessity and need. The Foreign Investors Council will continue to work on further improvement of this important segment of doing business today, through the joint Working Group with the Government, hoping that this conference will be only the first step in the direction of further and deeper dialogue and, above all, the partnership between the state and the FIC members, so that we can all continue the process of digitalization in a better way and as quickly as possible.