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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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