The Caravan of Digital Skills, Literacy, and Security “Digital Expedition 2023” has visited Grocka on Friday and Saturday. This mobile event, launched at the initiative of the Prime Minister of Serbia, Ana Brnabić, two years ago, has attracted the attention of all generations. Visitors had the opportunity to get to know better and explore the possibilities of the digital world, electronic services, the basics of digital literacy and security, as well as many other advantages brought by the 21st century and new technologies.
Through thematic presentations and discussions with experts, the oldest fellow citizens, as well as other residents of Grocka, had the opportunity to acquire the first digital skills, learn about safe behaviour on the Internet, as well as all other advantages of using the Internet and digital space.
“Digitization has arrived quite successfully in Grocka, and today we had the opportunity to make sure that both the youngest and oldest citizens of this city municipality use modern information technologies very gladly and without problems. Serbia is one of the countries that has made the most progress in the digitization process in the last few years, and is the absolute leader in the region in this area. In Serbia, there are currently 2.25 million of the so-called eCitizens, which means that the number of citizens who are digitally active and use modern services on the eGovernment Portal, which the State has made available to them, is increasing week by week. We are continuing with the digitization of public administration and local self-government and the development of new electronic services, so that our public administration can be a real service for its citizens and enable them to exercise their rights in the fastest, most efficient and simplest way,” the Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, Aleksandar Martinović, has said. He added that, according to the latest information, almost a million pensioners have already received their pensioner cards, which bring new benefits and which will significantly affect the improvement of their material status. Emphasizing that MDULS is the parent house of all cities and municipalities in Serbia, Martinović has pointed out that the Ministry shall continue to provide assistance and support to local self-governments on the way to their further development.
“Our impressions after this year’s tours of local self-governments are such that we have made the decision to practically visit every city and every municipality in the Republic of Serbia in the coming period. The specificity of this year’s caravan and this year’s expedition is that we pay special attention to the oldest fellow citizens. In each municipality and each city, we furnish a digital corner together with associations of pensioners, where they can continue to acquire their knowledge, and we organize young people from such local self-governments to educate our oldest fellow citizens. When it comes to the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications, what is important to us is that, through this digital caravan, we promote the work of the National Contact Centre for Child Safety on the Internet, which provides both proactive and reactive support to children, parents and teachers via the phone number 19833 or via the web portal pametnoibezbedno.gov.rs“, the Minister of Information and Telecommunications, Mihailo Jovanović, has said, and added that through the “Connected Schools” project, 3,800 primary and secondary schools are connected to high-speed Internet, and that over 1,900 schools have also been provided with a local computer network.
The opening of the caravan in Grocka was attended by the State Secretary of the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs, Lav Pajkić, the President of the CM Grocka, Dragan Pantelić, and the Acting Director of the Office for IT and eGovernment, Milan Latinović.
The National Contact Centre for Child Safety on the Internet, in cooperation with the organization Propulsion and the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, have organized workshops for primary and secondary school students who are particularly exposed to risks in the digital world.
The Ministry of Information and Telecommunications has built a local computer network in 14 primary schools, secondary schools and satellite classrooms in the Municipality of Grocka through the Connected Schools project, while all 23 primary, secondary schools and satellite classrooms of this municipality are connected to the Academic Network of the Republic of Serbia (AMRES).
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
