“The use of the Internet is one of the main indicators of development of the information society and digital economy. Serbia is a part of the global digital world with established internet population which is keeping pace with the citizens of the most developed countries”, State Secretary in the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications, Tatjana Matić has said with regard to the International Internet Day.

She has stated that the total number of Internet users in Serbia is 3.550.000, which is 65.8% of the population, while 2.950.000 citizens use the Internet on daily basis or almost every day. The number of users has increased by 2.5% comparing to 2014, by 10.9% comparing to 2013, and by 17.8% comparing to 2012.

On the other hand, the existing economic gap is reflected in the difference of the ITC use. In urban areas 70.1 per cent of households have the Internet connection, while in rural areas that percentage is 53.2. Having in mind the fact that the major part of the internet population and ICT users are the young, it is necessary to provide the new generations with equal opportunities of education and economic and social prosperity and this is why our priorities in the implementation of the digital transformation process are in particular programs devoted to children and the young”, Ms Tatjana Matić has pointed out.

She has reminded that within these programs for improvement of education supported by the information and communication technologies, the Ministry also implements the project of connecting all the primary and secondary schools to the Academic Network of Serbia, thanks to which the pupils in schools will have free and safe internet in the period of next three years.

“The next step in the project “Connected Schools” is the creation of a standardised and sustainable infrastructure, which will permanently ensure a stable and safe Internet in all Serbian schools, with the use of numerous electronic services for learning”, State Secretary has announced.
The International Internet Day, October 29, is celebrated worldwide on the day when in 1969 the first e-mail was sent at the University in California.