The State Secretary in the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, Čedomir Rakić, has met today with the delegated Minister for Public Administration and Administrative Reform of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Santiago Nsobeya Barreiros, and as part of his official visit to the Republic of Serbia, discussed on that occasion the digitization and the positive changes brought about by modern electronic administration.
Rakić has emphasized that the Republic of Serbia recognized digitization on time as one of the pillars and most important elements in the public administration system, that it directly facilitates the lives of citizens and contributes to the economic prosperity of the country, and that, bearing this in mind, the Government of the Republic of Serbia has worked intensively in recent years on the introduction of information systems and innovative technologies, while empowering employees to use modern tools. He added that the success of Serbia’s e-government is recognized globally and that Serbia is one of the leaders in this field, which was clearly shown by the United Nations Report, which measures the development of electronic government and services, which ranks Serbia among the countries with a highly developed digital administration, which takes a high 15th place in the domain of e-participation.
Recalling that the Republic of Equatorial Guinea was a Spanish colony for more than two centuries, and that after this period it was considered as one of the poorest countries in the world, as well as that the country had inherited an old administrative system that implies the arrival of citizens at the counters and paper transactions of the civil service apparatus, the delegated Minister for Public Administration and Administrative Reform of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Santiago Nsobeya Barreiros, has said that his country is moving in the direction of reforms, which is confirmed by the latest projects launched in this country. He expressed great respect for the success of Serbia’s electronic administration at the global level, but also his belief that Serbia is ready to help Guinea on its way to strengthening and digitizing public administration, so that it may serve its citizens in the same way.
The interlocutors have agreed that it is necessary to build stronger cooperation between the two countries, and that the examples of reforms in Serbia can serve as inspiration for Guinea to reduce its administrative costs and procedures.
The State Secretary Rakić has especially thanked the delegation of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea for the sincere support that this country provides to Serbia’s foreign policy and the achievement of its key foreign policy interests.