Overview:

As the world market for outsourced software engineering, offshore systems design and integration continues to grow, Serbia is well positioned both geographically and structurally to provide cost-effective, reliable alternatives to European and other markets. Serbian ICT companies have a competitive advantage in the region with regard to pricing and worker skill levels. With an average gross wage of $880 per month for ICT, Serbia is ranked below the regional average. The sector includes many small, flexible firms that are able to quickly react to market demands and develop new niche markets for themselves.  

Strategic Approach and Objectives:

The Competitiveness Project’s strategic focus in the ICT sector includes export promotion, local market development, and technical training and certification to strengthen the capacity of firms to compete internationally, particularly in the European Union (EU) and the Gulf Region. Strategic objectives for the sector include:  

• Strengthen the capacity of local IT firms through technical trainings and support for obtaining key certifications;
• Facilitate local demand for IT solutions & services; 
• Increase export of IT solutions & services

Key Activities:

Project Management Training Support — Our 2008 Skills Gap Analysis highlighted project management training as one of the biggest priorities for Serbia’s IT sector. The Project launched a management training and certification program in early 2009 based on the internationally recognized standards set by the U.S.-based Project Management Institute (PMI). The Project offers financial support up to 50% of the cost for successful completion of the training course and certification exam. This program has achieved considerable success, with over 200 individuals taking the training, and 26 professionals passing the certification exam in two rounds of testing. This has increased the number of certified PMPs in Serbia from 10 to 26. The Project also supported one of the leading training providers in Belgrade, the Centre for Project Management (CPM), in achieving a Registered Education Provider status (REP) with the PMI, enabling its training courses to be automatically recognized by the PMI in qualifying for the examination. Currently, CPM is the only training provider in the Western Balkans with official REP status. To learn more about how the Competiveness Project can help you obtain PMP certification, click here.

CISCO Entrepreneur Institute Training Center Support — To support companies in understanding how IT can improve their business processes and marketing, the Project worked with the Technical Faculty of Novi Sad University and CISCO Systems to establish the CISCO Entrepreneur Institute Training Center. The Institute offers entrepreneur-specific business knowledge intended to help participants connect to new technologies that can be used to develop e-business and e-solutions. The Institute is the first of its kind in the Western Balkans. Since its start in March 2009, the Institute has trained 136 participants to improve their business skills. To learn more about the CISCO Institute, click here.

IT Sector Export Promotion — In collaboration with the Serbia Investment and Export Promotion Agency (SIEPA), the Project has supported attendance of 25 Serbian IT firms at select, high-value trade shows such as CeBIT and Embedded World Fair in Germany, and Gitex in Dubai. The Project provided pre-trade show training to help participants engage with prospective customers and follow-up with business leads. As a result of trade show participation, the Project has supported $4.5 million in business linkages to date.

Information Technology Upgrading Program Support— In 2009, the Project launched a Technology Upgrade  activity to bothincrease local demand for Serbian IT services while also improving the productivity of manufacturing firms through IT solutions. This program allows companies in the wood processing, furniture, building materials and ICT sectors to seek project support to cover up to 50% of the cost of software technology upgrades ($15,000 maximum) using software produced by local Serbian technology firms. These upgrades create or expand existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) technologies to improve productivity and competitiveness. To learn more about how the Project can help you finance technology upgrades, click here.