Hangzhou, cloud city, the first station of Serbia on the Information Silk Road

State Secretary in the Ministry of Trade, Tourism, and Telecommunications Tatjana Matić has said in the meeting of Serbian delegation with the National Committee for Reforms and Development in Hangzhou, that the activities launched within the implementation of the Memorandum of Information Silk Road between Serbia and China of key importance for the cooperation of the two countries in the field of digital economy.

She has expressed her pleasure with the fact that Hangzhou was selected as the partner city to the City of Niš, with which it will establish a pilot zone of the economic cooperation, since that ancient Chinese city with years of tradition in commerce, today is known for its developed digital economy and successful IT companies.

“It is also important that the headquarters of “Alibaba Group” are in Hangzhou, since the agreement was made with that company, during this visit to China, to start the realisation of defined cooperation priorities in the Information Silk Road”, says Ms Matić.

Hangzhou, cloud city, the first station of Serbia on the Information Silk Road

Activities were made precise in the meeting to implement the Memorandum of Information Silk Road.

In the field of electronic trade, a single zone with Hangzhou will be established, to include storage, export, and logistic centres, where the leader will be “Alibaba”. In the field of “smart cities” smart traffic and safety will be developed, as well as electronic services of administrative bodies, and based on the Hangzhou model. Enterprises from that cities will be encouraged to establish information centres and platforms for e-cloud in Serbia. The plan is to create the platform within the high-tech zones and science parks, to support the cooperation of high education institutes and enterprises.

Modern logistics will be developed, where Chinese enterprises will be encouraged to invest in cargo centres and production parks for the users in Europe. In the field of tourism, opportunities for cooperation between Hangzhou and Serbia will be analysed, creation of attractive touristic arrangements, and online cooperation. Also, cooperation in the field of game industry will be encouraged as well.

The meeting was participated by the Deputy Mayor of the City of Hangzhou, Dai Djenpin, who stated that the city, with nine million citizens, as a pilot zone of cooperation with the cities within the initiative of “One Belt, One Road”, constantly develops innovations, and it is one of the cities named ideal city, or city in clouds, and is has received the recognition for several times by the United Nations as the best place to live in.

Deputy Mayor of the City of Niš, Dragoslav Pavlović, said that whe it comes to investments in the field of advanced technology in Serbia, the leading position takes the City of Niš, and that the objective is to raise that level in the field of electronic communications and electronic platforms, reached by Hangzhou.

Deputy Director General of the Department for High Technology of the National Committee for Reforms and Development of PR of China, Woo Hao, said that the desire of the Chinese side it to make this cooperation an example of cooperation of other cities between China and Serbia in the field of economy, digitalisation and culture, and that the model should be followed by other countries.

Delegation of the Republic of Serbia in its official visit to China, participated in the fourth World Internet Conference, in Vzzhen, and supported the Initiative for international cooperation in the field of digital economy within the platform “One Belt, One Road”.

Delegation members are the representatives of the Ministry of Trade, Tourism, and Telecommunications, heads of the Group for Development of Digital Agenda, and Department for regulation, analysis, and planning in the field of information society, Milan Dobrijević and Natalija Radoja.