“Greater inclusion of women in the information-communication technologies sector requires association and social support, but the key issue is for prejudice about this field being primarily male to be eliminated through the education process”, said State Secretary at the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Tatjana Matić, at the roundtable “Challenges, Capacities and Current Situation for Women’s Entrepreneurship in Serbia”, held at the Metropol Hotel in Belgrade.
The State Secretary spoke regarding the “Role and Status of Women in Developing Information Society”, particularly emphasizing the programmes of the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications stimulating gender equality in the process of developing information society.
“We are actively involved in the project Global Network of Women in ICT, established under the auspices of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), started at the initiative of the Republic of Serbia in 2010. The project involves the promotion of gender equality through the use of information-communication technologies, implemented as part of celebrating the international “Girls in ICT Day”. This day is marked at the international level every fourth Thursday in April, aiming to bring information and communication technologies closer to girls, along with jobs that exist within this sector where women are professionally underrepresented”, said Tatjana Matić and announced the Ministry will mark this day on 28 April, as it is celebrated worldwide.
She noted that the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications provides support to women’s business in ICT both through programmes of start-up and innovative loans, as well as through a special programme for training and re-training women into the ICT sector, with two million dinars provided this year.
The event was organized by the Italian Business Association in Serbia, Confindustria Serbia, marking 2016 as the year of small and medium-sized entrepreneurship, with particular emphasis on the role of women in economic development and competitiveness.
Participants of the panel included Cinzia La Rosa, Member of the Steering Board of Confindustria Serbia and the first woman president of the Confindustria of the Veneto region, Erich Cossutta, President of Confindustria Serbia, Irena Brajović, Director of Confindustria Serbia, Sanja Popović Pantić, President of the Association of Businesswomen and other renowned representatives of the business and public sector.
