Pristina, September 21, 2022
On the first day of the Digital Summit for the Western Balkans, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, emphasized the importance of this summit in a joint press conference with the Minister of Economy, Artane Rizvanolli and the German State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Digitalization and Transport. , Stefan Schnorr.
Prime Minister Kurti’s full speech at the press conference:
Dear journalists,
We, as the Republic of Kosovo, as the government of our country, are the hosts of the fifth edition of the Digital Summit of the Western Balkans. This summit is the largest event organized in the region and which derives from the Berlin process.
On this occasion, I am in front of you together with our Minister of Economy, Mrs. Artane Rizvanolli, whom I thank for the preparations, ideas and organization of this summit, but I am also together with Mr. Schnorr, who is the German State Secretary for Digitization and Transport.
The digitalization summit brings together policymakers from the region, from the European Union, representatives of international institutions, experts in information and communication technology, to exchange ideas, experiences and plans, which contribute to the future digital transition in the Western Balkan region and beyond.
The fifth edition is being held here in Pristina, and on this occasion we confirm our willingness to strengthen regional cooperation, but also digitalization, as a very important process for all areas of life and activity.
Digitization increases the quality of services, then the accountability of officials and the transparency of processes in public administration, but undoubtedly also in industry, entrepreneurship, education, health, and others.
More than 200 businesses are participating in this summit, there will be more than 60 speakers and over 30 non-governmental organizations, in total 9 panels and 16 side events, all these activities of all age groups from Kosovo, the region, the Union European and United States of America.
The discussions, which will be within the framework of the common digital agenda, will focus on digital infrastructure, such as optical fibers and 5G technology, then skills, digital capacities, for a force, workforce, which is educated for the challenges of economy in the future, which will increasingly be digitized.
Then, cyber security, which should bring cyber resilience of institutions, businesses, and the state in general, against various possible attacks. And the last one is the creation of a favorable and competitive environment for innovative businesses.
During this digital summit, there will be four competitions among youth groups of all countries, which include robotics, then coding, computer games, and so on.
Together with the Minister of Economy and the Secretary from Germany, we visited the groups of children, who have been doing programming in their competition in the field of robotics since the beginning. There are a total of 44 children in 21 teams, from all countries, and I had the opportunity to talk closely with the children from Tetova, from Kosovo, then with the children from Osjek, Croatia, and so on, as well as the students, who were in a competition, regarding the design of computer games, in which case we will have the results in the afternoon.
The information and communication technology community will have the chance to participate in B2B business meetings, to create as much networking as possible with each other and in this way everyone will benefit from the new contacts they create.
Thank you all and I hope that this digital summit will be both meaningful and productive in terms of our experiences, but also future achievements.
Now, I am passing the floor to the German Secretary, Mr. Schnorr, and then to the Minister of Economy, Mrs. Rizvanolli.
Last modified: September 21, 2022