Information Access Center opens in Belgrade

Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government of Serbia Branko Ruzic opened the Information Access Center in Belgrade on Wednesday, December 20, 2017. The center was financed by the Republic of Korea with EUR 250,000 and is intended for training civil servants, but also citizens, in the field of information and communications technologies.

As stated on the website of the Government of Serbia, Ruzic pointed out on the occasion that the ministry had provided the space, whereas the Republic of Korea had provided the equipment, technology, knowledge and free training courses.

The minister said that the center was meant for the training of public administration workers, but also citizens, students, startups, non-governmental organizations and local self-governments, in the field of ICT.

The center, as he said, will help establish a sustainable model of the development of digitization of the public administration in Serbia and is the first concrete result of a memorandum signed with the director of the National Information Society Agency of the Republic of Korea (NIA), which has been an important partner of Serbia for years now.

The director of NIA, Byung-jo Suh, pointed out that the information and communications policy carried out by the Government of Serbia had made an incredible step forward and added that IT was the fastest growing sector in Serbia, with a participation of 6% in the GDP.

According to him, the Government of Serbia is making important steps towards increasing the digital competency of civil servants, citizens and young generations.

Adviser to the minister of foreign affairs at the Embassy of the Republic of Korea, Ki Chang Park, said that the Information Access Center would be a space for the fostering of Serbia and Korea's friendship and noted that the country was Serbia's partner on its road to digitization.

Director at the Ministry of Science and ICT of the Republic of Korea, Moon Gi Che, said that Serbia had an excellent education system, enabling the development of excellent IT experts.

Che expressed his conviction that the center would become an “information yard” in central and eastern Europe and that the cooperation between the two states would expand to culture and business as well.

The center takes up 410 m2 and has three equipped rooms for training courses in the field of ICT, conference halls and staff offices, featuring modern computers and other equipment.

The education is to be carried out by experts, volunteers and consultants from both countries.

Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus are other European countries that have been aided by South Korea this way in the past 15 years, and the centers are present in all continents except for North America.

Ministarstvo državne uprave i lokalne samouprave Republike Srbije

Ambasada Južne Koreje u Beogradu

Information Access Center

National Information Society Agency of the Republic of Korea

Ministry of Science and ICT of the Republic of Korea

Branko Ruzic

Byung jo Suh

information technologies in Serbia

civil servant training

civil servant training in ICT

Ki Chang Park

Moonn Gi Che

digitization of Serbia