China, Serbia to deepen information technology cooperation

BELGRADE - China-Serbia cooperation on the development of Information Silk Road is due to start with exchanges in fields of electronic trade, logistics and market information, smart cities and online tourism, representatives of the two countries agreed on Wednesday in Belgrade.

At the opening of the conference "Information Silk Road for Informational Interconnection," Wu Hao, deputy general manager of the department for High-Tech industry at the National Development and Reform Commission of China and Tatjana Matic, state secretary at the ministry of trade, tourism and telecommunications of Serbia, signed a plan of activities on the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Information Silk Road in front representatives of IT companies of both countries.

The aim, according to Wu, is to motivate deeper and wider cooperation in the field of information technology between governments, institutions and companies of the two countries within the Information Silk Road, a platform aimed to break down barriers in communication and facilitate flow of information between Asian and European nations.

Wu said that the agreement with the Serbian ministry will help "achieve results for the 21st century" with the participation of companies from the two countries.

Matic said that the MoU with China represents an opportunity to advance cooperation in trade, tourism and telecommunications, as well as other fields such as health services and economy.

"We have decided to create pilot zone for economic cooperation within the Information Silk Road, where each side will give its suggestions and propose cities which will become part of this zone. We will also create a database of all joint projects that we are going to realize. One of the key points is also to establish an international industrial alliance within the Information Silk Road at the Institute for the Information Silk Road in China in order to promote companies within the sector of the digital economy," she explained.

Matic predicted that the implementation of the MoU will create a stable digital foundation for the greater inclusion of Serbia in the Belt and Road Initiative and highlighted smart cities, telemedicine, broadband networks, satellite services and new industries as some of the areas of cooperation.

"We believe that the implementation of this agreement will give a key contribution to the cooperation between Serbia and China in the area of information and communication technologies, and that this will motivate more companies to become actively involved into the establishment of the Information Silk Road," Matic concluded.