THE SEE REGION COULD MAKE ITS OWN BRAND
  
Marvelous ambient of the hotel Excelsior, one of the most beautiful ones in Dubrovnik, gathered this year a significant number of speakers for the South East Europe Forum for Information and Communication Technologies - SEFICT. Besides representatives-founders of all ex-Yugoslav republics, at this year's Forum, a great interest of representatives from Denmark, Austria, France, Bulgaria and even Palestine was obvious.
On behalf of the French OECD - Organization for Cooperation and Development, Mr. Philiponnet Nicolas in his introductory talk, presented the priorities in evaluation of increasing the skills in information and communications sector, particularly emphasizing the need for investments in general knowledge as the key bearer of the entire development.
Mr. Jorn W. Phigalt, from Denmark, CEO of ITM Europe, presented one of the most interesting views for the SEE region - in his work "The AcceptableChoice”. Mr. Phigalt, as one of the best-known European analysts and permanent associate at UNCTAD - United Nations Conference for Trade and Development, emphasized the fact that the SEE region, especially states of ex-Yugoslavia, does not have any recognizable brand that could turn attention to themselves in front of the European and world market. On the other hand, there are no obstacles for something like that, and SEFICT could exactly become a place for stimulating such ideas and foundation of the first steps. Results achieved in Romania and Bulgaria in recent years may be the real pivot for establishing the concentration in order to find common advantages of the SEE region and increase the future impact on the international markets.
BULWORK Company Ltd from Bulgaria picked up on the thoughts stated by ITM Europe, presenting its high results achieved in the market of ICT specialist recruitment and significant cooperation accomplished with world renowned companies: Danone, ING Bank, Hewlett-Packard, NBG, Nestle, Novell, Eurobank EFG Group, Philip Morris, SAP, Siemens, etc.
GlobalCom Telecommunications Company from the city of Ramallah - Palestine, by the presentation of Executive Director Mr. Kamil Qattan, assured us that the development of telecommunications services could be done very quickly if well planned and organized. For just two years, this company has become a leader in VoIP technologies and "Triple Play" solutions, constantly developing new services VoBB, IPTV and IPVC. GlobalCom Telecommunications Company is permanently focused on the E-lerning and E-government sectors, constantly improving its cooperation with the EU and USAID.
Master of siciences Andrea Fenz, Director, Skills International GmbH, Austria, as a participant of more than 35 European projects, presented us the cooperation in the field of research, innovation and training carried out in the SEE region within 7th Framework Program (FP7) in Kosovo, Slovenia and Croatia, giving us guidance and hope for even greater engagement of local experts in international projects.
In short, SEFICT formed 8 years ago by the representatives of chambers of commerce of ex-Yugoslav countries and later affiliated representatives of ICT associations, conceived as a side event of JISA Congress, with each year gets bigger regional significance implementing the ideas and efforts to connect the SEE countries with the rest of Europe and the world. Unfortunately, it is still noticeable and demonstrated by the daily agenda of Forum, that the southern countries from ex-Yugoslavia more often have a status of an observer than active participant, i.e. that the solutions presented from Slovenia this time also were in the majority in relation to the other regional participants, who did not have enough material for their presentations.
 
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SEFICT - South East Europe Forum ICT was founded in 2002 by ICT representatives of chambers of commerce of former yugoslav republics. The aim was to improve mutual collaboration in the region, trade and participation in projects financed by EU, USAID and other financial institutions. After four years, SEFICT is open for all countries in the region.
SEFICT conferences:
| 2009. |
Dubrovnik, Croatia |
| 2008. |
Dubrovnik, Croatia |
| 2007. |
Herceg Novi, Montenegro |
| 2006. |
Belgrade, Serbia |
| 2005. |
Dubrovnik, Croatia |
| 2004. |
Dubrovnik, Croatia |
| 2003. |
Herceg Novi, Montenegro |
| 2002. |
Herceg Novi, Montenegro |
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SEFICT
SEFICT – SouthEast Europe ICT Forum, founded by Economic Chambers and informatics societies from the SEE - SouthEastEurope region, showed increased interest and more presented informatics achievements.
Established as the following manifestation of the Congress JISA, the Conference during the years confirmed its importance in the region, so one could expect in this year working meetings of presidencies in the countries in the region.
This initiative is confirmed by the European Chamber of Economy, Trade and Industry from Brusseles supported SEFICT Conference, and as it represents great impact on improvement of cooperation in the region, we got promisses that European chamber of economy, trade and industry will make great contribution to the improvement of those activities.
Regional importance of SEFICT is confirmed by the cohesion of new societies and associations in the neghbouring countries, as DICG – Montenegrin Informatics Society, and some initiatives of Chambers of Commerce, Ministry of Telecommunication, information society of the Republic of Serbia and others from region, so as the announcment of stronger cohesion of public and private ICT sector, with clear tendency of regional presence and influence the development of information society.
Companies are giving its remarkable contribution for the conference:
Telekom Srbija a.d. – Belgrade
IPR - Zagreb, Croatia
UNINET - Ljubljana, Slovenia
Sony Ericsson and
Agency for electronic communications - Skopje, Macedonia.
Executive
board:
Coordinator: Djordje Dukic,
The General Secretary of SEFICT
Members:
Sofija Jovanovska – Chamber
of Economy of Macedonia
Tomislav Milic – Chamber of
Economy of Montenegro
Stevan Ljumovic - Montenegrian Informatics Society
Olivera Stankovic – Chamber of Economy of Serbia
Ivana Zeljkovic - Chamber
of Economy of Belgrade
Djordje Dukic, president of
JISA – Union of ICT Societes of Serbia
Marijan Frkovic – Chamber of
Economy of Croatia
Mladen Glasenhardt, president
HIZ – Croatian Informatics society
Janko Marendić - Foreign Trade Chamber of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Director of sector CIS (Center for Informatics and Statistics)
Brano Vujicic, BAIT – Association for information technologies in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Mojca Osojnik – Chamber of
Economy of Slovenia
Niko Schlamberger - president
SDI – Slovenian society of informatic experts |
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