"We shall take advantage of the Foreword to answer a seemingly simple question: Why does Serbia need a strategy in the area of science and technology? Technology is all around us. All of us will agree that the only sustainable position of Serbia in the 21st century is one in which it is involved in areas of industry generating a high value added, in other words - knowledge. We are all proud of our famous scientists. Every scientific event, such as the Science Festival, attracts a lot of attention. On the other hand, the decisions taken by our society reflect a substantially different image. Budgetary allocations for science and technology have not seen a significant increase, remaining at the level of about 0.3% of GDP. There have been no major investments in science infrastructure. The number of young scientists and highly-qualified engineers leaving our country is still significant. The number of students opting for natural sciences and mathematics at universities keeps decreasing. Investments in technology made by the industrial sector are still insignificant. All this is reflected in what Serbia brings out into the global market. Serbian exports today are not much different from the exports of medieval
Serbia..." (from the Foreword).