Business Diplomatic Breakfast – Smart Economy
A smart economy is based on technological innovation, resource efficiency, sustainability and high social welfare as engines of success. It adopts innovations, new entrepreneurial initiatives, increases productivity and competitiveness with the general goal of improving the quality of life of all citizens as well as reshaping our ecosystem: by transforming society, the real sector, the energy network, healthcare and education.
Bearing in mind the need to present and discuss the skills and knowledge necessary to create added value, which are experiences in creating a smart economy of the most developed countries, smart specialization and other issues related to the smart economy, on Thursday, February 21, we organized a business panel at the Metropol Hotel with the participation of H.E. Jaewoong LEE, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the Republic of Serbia, Professor Vladimir Crnojević, Director of the BioSens Institute, Dragana Đurica, General Secretary of the European Movement in Serbia and Vladan Todorović, CEO and founder of Advanced Security Technology. The panel was moderated by Tatjana Veselinović.
The panel held, the Business Diplomatic Breakfast, is part of the activities of our Business Intelligence Club, which gathers CEOs, company owners, members of IOs of banks and insurance companies and many other C level members. In addition to our members, the panel was attended by many representatives of the economic departments of embassies in Serbia.
After the welcoming speech of Vesna Stajić, who addressed the guests in front of the Business Intelligence Club and the Business Intelligence Institute, the present panelists and guests were greeted by Naim Leo Beširi, the executive director of the Institute for European Affairs, who has been one of the partners of this event for the 4th year in a row. This year, our partners in the organization were ProCredit Bank and the European Movement in Serbia.
At the Business Diplomatic Breakfast, HE Ambassador of South Korea, Mr. Jaewoong LEE spoke about the success and transformation of the Republic of Korea, from a poor country after World War II to a creator of the future that invests in research and development almost 5% of GDP per year, the country which relies the most on and invests in education, but also the countries with the highest number of working hours in the world.
The director of the Biosens Institute from Novi Sad, which is one of the best examples of the smart economy in Europe, Professor Crnojević, emphasized the necessity of co-creation of research centers and the economy, greater investment in education (Serbia allocates 0.96% of its GDP annually), changes and trends in development, technology as well as activities in the field of high innovative technology created by the institute.
Dragana Đurica, general secretary of the European Movement in Serbia, introduced us to the project of smart specialization and how much it can mean to us in EU integration and in opening access to EU structural and cohesion funds. What are the researches in the EU that indicate the correlation of the level of development of the smart economy with the quality of life of the citizens, whether Serbia has and what are the chances of attracting smart investments were also some of the questions we were asked.
The founder and CEO of Advanced Security Technology, Vladan Todorović, who deals with cyber security systems and is globally present in this field, told the guests about how smart business can influence the improvement of a country’s reputation, and what is the optimal amount of investment in R&D for companies. .
After the end of the official part, the guests had time to exchange opinions and establish new contacts over breakfast.
