Assistant Minister in the Department of Information Society, Sava Savić, took part in the meeting of the Belgrade Chamber of Commerce entitled “Electronic commerce-development and obstacles.”

The meeting was organized in order to merger the business sector and public administration, and consider all the aspects necessary for the further development and implementation of electronic commerce in the Republic of Serbia, as well as to identify the obstacles that need to be removed.

The representatives of the business sector at the meeting stressed that Serbia is a country with great potential in this area and that the percentage of electronic transactions shows an upward trend from year to year, but that it is necessary to further promote the cooperation between the economy and state administration, strengthen the ICT infrastructure and digital literacy, as well as to further harmonize the legal framework.

In accordance with that, Savić informed the participants about the activities of the Ministry aimed at improving the use of electronic transactions and the development of e-commerce as well as the activities for further regulation of the legal framework through the draft law on electronic commerce. This law should legally regulate electronic identification, electronic signatures, electronic seal, the registered e-mail, time stamp, electronic document authentication as well as web sites which would also provide a basis for regulated and technically reliable electronic interaction between citizens, businesses and the public sector and thus significantly influence the development of electronic commerce.

In addition, Savić said that the Ministry is actively working on the e-business project, which aims to strengthen the competitiveness of Serbian economy by strengthening the private sector, especially small and medium-sized enterprises as well as by developing e-business. The project should assist in the strengthening the legal and institutional framework in order to create a better environment for e-business in Serbia and contribute to the development of e-commerce application with the systemic regulation of electronic invoices.

It was concluded that such cooperation and dialogue between the business sector and government bodies is extremely important for the further development of electronic commerce and that it should be continued with the involvement of all relevant government institutions.