In today’s final conference “Developing e-Business in Serbia – outcomes and challenges”, thirty small and medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurs received the e-Trustmark.

Thanks to the EU support through the project “Developing e-Business”, in the past two years, the total number of 66 small and medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurs received the e-Trustmark, which stands for the initiative for introduction of the e-Trustmark principle and practice in the community in Serbia.
The introductory speeches were given by Mr Oscar Benedict, Deputy Head of the EU Mission to Serbia, Ms Vesna Kovač, State Secretary in the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications, Mrs Katarina Obradović Jovanović , Assistant Minister in the Ministry of Economy and Ms Maja Pejčić, Head of the Project Management Sector of the Development Agency of Serbia.

In the course of the past two years, the project provided support to small and medium-sized enterprises by making them learn more about the concept of e-commerce, e-business and digital applications which they can use as an innovative tool for increasing the competitiveness and reduction of operation costs and for encouraging consumers to use e-commerce. In addition to the introduction of the e-Trustmark for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), the project included numerous workshops and trainings for more than 700 representatives of SMEs on e-business and e-commerce.

For around 1000 representatives of state institutions, there were 35 workshops on the importance of digital economy, e-business and e-commerce, fight against cybercrime. Nine brochures and useful manuals were published on these issues, distributed to all the project beneficiaries.

In order to increase the trust of e-consumers in e-commerce, an internet platform was created for a much safer shopping www.e-dukator.rs where the citizens can educate and inform themselves on their rights when shopping online. More than 2000 citizens received certificates at this platform on their consumer rights, and over 6000 followers on Facebook were educated on online shopping. The portal www.eposlovanjesrbija.rs was created, containing numerous texts and useful articled on various aspects of e-business and e-commerce in the world and in Serbia. The portal will be maintained by the Development Agency of Serbia and Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications in order to promote digital economies and with the support to SME in Serbia.

The second part of the conference, the issue of e-invoicing was presented by Mr Panagiotis Zafiropoulos, the main expert on the project while the future of e-Trustmark in Serbia was addressed by Mr Nebojša Đurić from the Centre for e-Commerce Development and Online Consumer Protection from Novi Sad. The representatives of small and medium-sized enterprises _ Muzej teatar Ltd. and Virid Ltd. presented the significance of the cooperation with the project for obtaining the e-Trustmark.