First Annual Session of Vojvodina ICT Cluster General Assembly

On June 10, 2011, at the Faculty of Technical Sciences in Novi Sad, the first annual Session of Vojvodina ICT Cluster General Assembly took place. This was the opportunity to look back at the results so far, and to discuss future activities of our association. During the session, presided by Mr. Slobodan Moraca, Vicepresident of the GA, Mr. Branislav Djukic, President of the Managing Board presented MB Report for the period March 2010 – May 2011, followed by Mr. Milan Solaja, CEO, presentation of Activity Report for the same period. After adoption of these reports by GA, adopted several formal decisions, aiming to improve functioning of the association and creating conditions for further progress.

GA concluded that our association has met the expectation so far, but that a lot of work is still needed to be done. Good results comprise increase of members from 17 to 28, projects realized in cooperation with AP Vojvodina Government and Ministry of Economy and Regional Development, establishment of a netwokr of business contacts which includes donors and business partners in Serbia and worldwide, starting lobbying process for introduction of state measures for improvement of situation in ICT sector, and others. Focus of future activities wil be on establishment of a Project Office of the cluster and Cluster Academy, strengthening business relations abroad with the aim of creating new business opportunities, lobbying and strengthening Vojvodina ICT Cluster’s position of the strongest cluster in Serbia and as the top address for ICT sector in Serbia, as well as further development of partner relationships in Serbia and wider.

Dialog of Business, Education and Government

In organization of Vojvodina ICT Cluster, Informatics Association of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, and Regional Chamber of Commerce from Nis, a series of round tables was started aiming to shed more light on problems in ICT sector of Serbia, and to start a dialog within the tripple helix of Business – Education – Government, in order to jointly find solutions for those problems. These activities are directed on two tracks; First one is about advancement of knowledge and skills that future IT professionals must have, through making stronger and more influential role of employers and associations in development of curricula possible. The secong track pertains to introduction of governmental measures for development of the sector, such as zero taxation policy, and abandoning VAT for computers and IT equipment.

After round table sessions in Belgrade and Nis on May 30 and July 1 respectively, where representatives of relevant ministries, high schools, universities and IT companies took part, we expect the next round table this Fall in Novi Sad where we hope that participants from business, education and government will start activities on development and implementation of concrete measures.

Popularization of IT Profession

Within our activities on popularization of IT profession, Vojvodina ICT Cluster organized an info-day titled Choose Your Future! in the largest institution for high school education in Vojvodina – Svetozar Miletic High School of Economics, in Novi Sad. Students had the opportunity to hear how is it to work an IT company, what are the benefits of choosing IT studies, and to learn about available scholarships and internships.

Ms. Natasa Nikolic spoke on behalf of the Office for EU Mobility of the University of Novi Sad, Ms. Zivana Komlenov PdD presented the Department of Informatics and Mathematics of Nature and Math Faculty of Novi Sad, while Ms. Marija Stancu Mirosavljev spoke on behalf of Business Incubator Novi Sad.

Innovation, Cooperation and Creativity of Serbian Clusters

In organization of Vojvodina ICT Cluster, ICT NET cluster from Belgrade, and NI CAT cluster from Nis, and with strong support from Support to Enterprise Competitiveness and Export Promotion – SECEP program, the event titled Innovation, Cooperation and Creativity, was held in hotel Balkan in Belgrade, on April 19, 2011.

Ms. Vita Latinovic and Mr. Andrzej Shafernaker from SECEP kicked off the event, followed by Ms. Zorica Maric from the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development, Mr. Aleksandar Cabrilo, CEO of Serbian Business Angels Network, Mr. Nikola Nenadic who presented Android + EMC project, and Mr. Andrija Bednarik of Serbian Investment and Export Promotion Agency – SIEPA.

The central part of the event there were short presentations of all three ICT clusters, followed by b2b session among representatives of ICT companies – members of these three clusters. Companies later rated this part of the event as the most valuable. Discussion about possibilities for cooperation between representatives of ICT clusters on one side, and representatives of automotive, furniture and textile clusters in Serbia took place at the end of the event.

International Activities

Vojvodina ICT Cluster became an associate member of Pan European ICT & eBusiness Network for SME – PIN-SME which gathers ICT association from all over Europe. Members of PIN-SME are ICT associations from Austria, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, Swiss, Denmark, Bulgaria and France. PIN-SME is headquartered in Brussels, and does lobbying for interests of ICT SME within EU institutions, and giving support to its members in applications for EU funded projects. Our association thus became the part of a large family, comprising over 50,000 ICT companies.

Vojvodina ICT Cluster in the World

Support to Enterprise Competitiveness and Export Promotion – SECEP project organized visit of Serbian delegation to Finland, May 22 – 28, 2011. The visit included the 7th International SME Conference, EPROCA seminars, and several visits to technology centers and other institutions for international cooperation.

Mr. Milan Solaja, CEO at Vojvodina ICT Cluster, was among the members of the delegation, and used the opportunity to visit TIEKE – Finnish Information Society Development Centre, where he presented VOICT and its goals to Ms. Eppie Eloranta, Managing Director. Both sides agreed that there’s plenty of space for cooperation, considering that many of the Finnish companies might be very interested to work with partners in Serbia.

Clusters of Vojvodina Conference

Clusters – Important Factors of Economic Development was the title of the first conference of Vojvodina clusters, organized by the Center for Competitiveness and Cluster Development, on June 14, 2011 in the Ceremonial Hall of the Faculty of Technical Sciences at the University of Novi Sad. Representatives of the Vojvodina Government, Mr. Istvan Pasztor, Vice-president of the Provincial Government, and Mr. Miroslav Vasin, Secretary for Labor, Employment and Gender Equality, expressed satisfaction with strong development of cluster initiatives in Vojvodina. During the presentation of Vojvodina clusters and in the following discussion, participants had a clear message: clustering is one of the best ways to organize businesses and achieve common goals.

Mr. Slobodan Moraca, Director at Center for Competitiveness and Cluster Development, described numerous activities which led to better results in development of clusters in the province. Vojvodina ICT Cluster was presented as an example of best practice in Serbia, but also as the proof that clusters are recognized today as important factors of economic development of the entire country.

Vojvodina ICT Cluster at the iFront Conference 2011

Belgrade theatre Madlenianum was the venue of the third international conference on eBusiness – iFront. The conference covered various issues: how to start Internet business, improve sales processes, invest in Web marketing and develop applications to connect Internet and mobile phones. Mr. Konstantin Guericke, Co-founder of LinkedIn network, gave presentation via video link, while Mr. Daniel Clemens from Google gave speech in person about Internet entrepreneurship and future trends.

This year, iFrong offered entire array of interesting lectures, and representatives of seven member companies of our cluster took the opportunity and discussed with Mr. Clemens their projects that might be of interest even to a giant such as Google, but also with other lecturers and conference participants.

Danube Strategy

Serbia and Slovakia were choosen by the EU Commission to be Coordinators of the Danube Strategy – Priority 7, Development of Knowledge Based Society Through Research, Education and Information Technologies. Upon invitation by Mr. Miroslav Veskovic, Rector of University of Novi Sad, who is also Co-Chairman of the Steering Committee, Mr. Milan Solaja, CEO of Vojvodina ICT Cluster, took part at the session of the committee in Novi Sad, June 22, 2011.

Vojvodina ICT Cluster at the Science Festival 2011

Third Science Festival took place May 7 – 8, 2011, at the campus of University of Novi Sad. Festival visitors were greeted by a wide spectrum of interesting content, including the stand of Vojvodina ICT Cluster where visitors of all ages were engaged into interesting logical video games, but also had the chance to learn how to become future IT professionals. During the two days of festival, Vojvodina ICT Cluster staff was strongly supported by colleagues from some of the member companies – Execom, Smart and Hinttech, who enriched the cluster offer and contributed to the fact that there was always a crowd of young people at the stand.

Over 300 researchers, associates and students took part in the festival program realization. Apart from 13 faculties and both R&D institutes of the university, new partners of the Science Festival presented themselves: Institute for Husbandry, Vojvodina Museum, Petnica Research Station, Provincial Institute for Nature Protection, Vojvodina ICT Cluster, and successful high-tech companies who originated from the Novi Sad University – RT-RK, Telvent DMS and Execom.

Call for Proposals by the Ministry of Economy
Deadline for applications for grants for individual projects of SME expired June 15, 2011. Vojvodina ICT Cluster, after successful application last year, prepared and submitted a fresh application in cooperation with members and with help of support institutions. One part of the application is Cluster Academy which should be a platform for organization of training according to the demand of the cluster member companies. There are also joint projects of member companies on development of new and improvement of existing products and solutions. Vojvodina ICT Cluster also applied with SIEPA for subsidies of costs for b2b events appearance abroad.

Flash news

· Vojvodina ICT Cluster has started to receive queries from foreign companies about possibilities of cooperation with member companies. This is a sign that our activities on positioning and visibility slowly yield results. We can count that in future there will be more and more such queries.

· Third members’ gathering was held on March 22, 2011, at the Park hotel in Novi Sad. It is already tradition that some of the members present themselves to the others at the beginning of the program, and this time was no exception. ComData and TO-NET presented their companies, followed by two lectures: Mr. Josip Bosnjakovic Coordinator for Vojvodina at NLP, gave presentation about NLP method, while Mr. Milan Glavaski, IT Director at Euronet Worldwide Europe talked about methods for service management. Of course, second part of the gathering was meant for informal talks and mingling, giving opportunity once more to everyone to get to know each other better and enjoy relaxed atmosphere. Next gathering is scheduled for late August..

· Upon a call from organizers, Vojvodina ICT Cluster attended Presentation of the Serbian Inovation Fund in Belgrade, June 3, 2011. This institution will soon start with implementation of a scheme for financing innovative projects of companies and individuals.

· On April 12, 2011, Milan Solaja, CEO of Vojvodina ICT Cluster, held a meeting at the premises of Serbian Chamber of Commerce in Belgrade, with Mr. Hugo van Veghel, Chairman of Belgium-Serbian business association, and Ms. Ann Veronique Mortier, Economic Consultant of the Belgium Embassy in Serbia, and presented work of the cluster and opportunities for cooperation with Belgian companies and institutions. Valuable contacts were acquired from our counterparts and further cooperation was discussed.

· Vojvodina ICT Cluster became a member of itSMF – IT Service Management Formu Serbia and took part at the itSMF SEE Conference in Belgrade on June 1, 2011. Topisc of the conference comprised Key ITSM Factors of business success, IT Standardization, IT Governance and Service Excellence.

New Projects

With the support from German organization for international cooperation – GIZ, we have started with activities aimed at establishment of Project Office which will deal with all the aspects of project tasks – from screening calls for national, EU and other funds, to coordination of application process with members, writing and evaluation of applications.

Project Office will be tasked with strengthening Vojvodina ICT Cluster and its members’ position of a supplier of hardware and software for successful projects.

Source: Vojvodina ICT Cluster - Bulletin No5, Office of the Vojvodina ICT Cluster office@vojvodinaictcluster.org

Further information: http://www.vojvodinaictcluster.org/