“Digital Expedition 2023”, a caravan of digital skills, literacy and safety, has visited Barajevo during Friday and Saturday. This project was launched two years ago at the initiative of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia, Ana Brnabić, with the aim of bringing together all generations in order to familiarize themselves with the digital world of the 21st century, electronic services, the basics of digital security and literacy, as well as with many other benefits that digitization and new technologies bring.
“The Republic of Serbia is taking big strides forward on the path of digital transformation of its public administration. The City Municipality of Barajevo is one of the examples where citizens of all generations manage well and happily use modern information technologies, and in addition to the successful implementation of digitization, in cooperation between the State and local self-governments, we implement important projects and thereby solve the pressing life issues of our citizens”, the Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, Aleksandar Martinović, has said. He added that at the last session of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, at the proposal of the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, the Decree on Electronic People’s Initiative was adopted, which represents a further step in the field of digitization and development of electronic administration.
“The “Digital Expedition” is an opportunity to meet different generations of our fellow citizens, to work with the youth to develop awareness that the Internet and the digital world carry certain risks and challenges, and to encourage the elderly to start using electronic services. Although our initial plan was to visit only 10 cities and municipalities this year, the previous experiences of the “Digital Expedition”, which was launched for the first time in 2021, have been excellent and we have set ourselves the goal of visiting all cities and municipalities in Serbia. The National Contact Centre for Child Safety on the Internet, which is part of the “Digital Expedition” caravan, is the first and, for now, the only institutional mechanism in the region which deals with the prevention and response to the endangerment of children in the digital environment, offering citizens the opportunity to contact it via the phone number 19833 free-of-charge, or through the online platform Smart and Safe www.pametnoibezbedno.gov.rs As part of the project to introduce Internet in rural settlements, works are underway on covering the following villages in the Municipality of Barajevo by the end of this year: Guncati, Meljak, Arnajevo, Manić and Rožanci, in which there are more than 2,000 households with a total of 6,740 inhabitants,” the Minister of Information and Telecommunications, Mihailo Jovanović, has said.
As part of this “Digital Expedition”, the oldest fellow citizens had the opportunity to learn about all the discounts and benefits provided when using the new Pensioner Cards at the stand of the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund of the Republic of Serbia. The use of the Pensioner Card commenced on 1 October 2023, and approximately 1.7 million citizens of the Republic of Serbia will have the right to use it.
A Digital Corner was dedicated to the oldest citizens of Barajevo, a space where they can attend specially designed courses and learn about safe behaviour on the Internet, as well as all about other advantages of using the Internet and the digital space. Two personal computers and a printer have been donated to the Pensioners’ Club in Barajevo.
The opening of the caravan was attended by the Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, Aleksandar Martinović, PhD, the Minister of Information and Telecommunications, Mihailo Jovanović, the State Secretary of the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs, Lav Pajkić, the President of the City Municipality of Barajevo, Slobodan Adamović, and the Assistant Director of the Office for IT and eGovernment, Slaviša Antić.
The “Digital Expedition” Caravan is implemented with the support of the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications, the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs, the Office for IT and eGovernment, the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection and in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the European organization Propulsion. You can find more information on the website: digitalnaekspedicija.gov.rs.
Photo gallery – source: MIT
