Digital Serbia Initiative and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) launched a project “Venture an Idea” which will support both current and future entrepreneurs on their path from innovative ideas to globally recognized startups in the next four years. The consortium gathered around the Digital Serbia Initiative will be focused on the promotion of an entrepreneurial mindset, strengthening the bonds between academia and the private sector, systemic and cross-sectoral growth of globally recognized innovations and other relevant topics for the further development of the innovative ecosystem in Serbia.
“One of the key elements of the ‘Venture an Idea’ is to support young people to take their entrepreneurial ideas and actually turn them into real products and businesses. The United States is supporting this initiative because we believe in the potential of Serbian innovation, and we want to help challenge old mindsets. We want Serbia’s best and brightest to be able to feel that they can realize their dreams and ambitions without having to go abroad,” said U.S. Ambassador to Serbia Anthony F. Godfrey.
“This project is not only a logical continuation of the great work that our organization has done in the past few years but also an opportunity for a large number of our partners with the same vision of Serbia to come together and accelerate the growth of the innovation ecosystem. What I can promise is that we will lead this project thinking entrepreneurially – we will be brave, we will deal with problems that seem unsolvable, we will ask for help when we know that there are smarter than us, we will make mistakes, and then become even more ambitious. We have an exciting four years ahead of us,” said Nebojša Đurđević, a director of the Digital Serbia Initiative, a non-governmental organization with the strategic goal of developing a strong, globally competitive digital economy in Serbia.
Prime Minister Ana Brnabić thanked USAID for its support and pointed out that, after the significant investments of the Government of Serbia in the infrastructure necessary for the development of the innovation ecosystem that the Government of Serbia realized in the previous period, the “Venture an Idea” project is a completely logical continuation.
“What is especially needed now is to further develop that culture of entrepreneurship, to encourage young people to try, to take their ideas and to make something of it,” Brnabić pointed out.
